Translated Between: Design & Theory
by Soft Requiem
Summary: There is reason why man does not tamper with the power to create life. To create, one must destroy.  "It's the way of men to make monsters, and it's the nature of monsters to destroy their makers." -Dr. Frankenstein
1. Chapter 1

_Translated Between: Design & Theory  
_© A-Useful-Idiot at DeviantArt / © Soft Requiem at Fanfiction  
(A-Useful-Idiot & Soft Requiem is the same person to those whom are confused)

There is reason why man does not tamper with the power to create life. To create, one must destroy.

"_It's the way of men to make monsters, and it's the nature of monsters to destroy their makers."  
__-Dr. Frankenstein_

_IN THE BEGINNING of Ted's life, or what she thought was her life, revolved around a man who claimed to have been her father._ She had awoke in a world of white and sanitation. It had been blinding in her first moments of consciousness. Their voices were muddy at first, strange muffled noises that sounded like a wounded animal, bellowing out and bleating their words she couldn't understand. Her eyes took a few minutes to adjust to the lights, which were dimmed to help the process as she stiffly moved her head to look at her surroundings with a numb fascination. Poking and prodding, her skin slowly responded as did her voice. Still they continued to talk, like a language she didn't think was a real tongue. Her own mouth moved, trying to say something, _anything_ to get them off her.

A man came into her view, pushing the other people out of her person and slapped their hands away like a hero. Skin was dark, dark hair pulled back and he wore the same uniform as everyone else. "Good morning Ted," he gently told her through whisper, but it was as loud as a bell in her ear drums. "You have been sleeping for some time now. Do you know me? Do you remember anything?"

The others had taken brown boards and begun to scribble things down. She narrowed her eyes to focus on him with unfocused and blurred vision. She tried to touch him, but an infantile sound emitted from her lips. Akin to a whine but she had tried to say something. Lifting her arm had been excruciating. Muscles screamed in protest, and nerves sand in a horrid chorus. She lay back limp on the bed, panting from effort.

"That's alright Ted. I don't expect you to say or do anything right now. I'm your father, Robert Stein. And you are my daughter, Ted."

They looked nothing alike. _Because you take after your mother,_ he had always said. He was a tall man, who had long before memory shaved off his hair and always, _always_ wore a doctors white coat. She herself, considered this to be the norm, as she only wore thin white pajamas and socks. Other people wore the same uniform as her father and would ask her strange questions.

_You walk as though you are a queen, why?_

_Does your head hurt?_

_Can you jump on one leg for me?_

_I heard you were in a coma, but yet you seem to lively. Hard you believe it's been three years._

Those people were always so strange, and now numb Ted felt herself tire of their questions already. Her 'father', Dr. Stein, informed her that she was the sole survivor of a car crash. _What is a car?_ And her family had been killed on impact, they had not suffered. _I have a family? _

Does one cry for people they don't know? That they have never known?

_Can you? _

Her home was large, there were some days she would find a door she had never known was there. Rooms were enormous, ceilings miles upon miles above her head and the doors were dark wood and heavy. Her home was dark; there were no windows in her home. Only lights from the many awe-inspiring chandeliers and hall lamps. There were pictures of families she had never seen. _Those were your friends_. Her father would say, and he would watch her closely. Ted felt the feeling of shame, for she didn't know those people, and yet they were _friends_, possibly the closest thing to a family she did not remember.

Three years since she had woken up in a hospital bed surrounded by men and women who wrote on data-pads and on notebooks. Watching her intently. _You nearly died_. Her father had said so; naturally he wanted to make sure everything was alright. That she wasn't in pain.

In her three years, he had lived in her window-less home filled with doors and rooms she would find anew. A constant discovery that was her home. In her three years, Dr. Stein or as she would refer to him as "Father" would always have a computer pad with him when he watched her. Calling him Father left her with a horrible taste on her tongue. He would often vanish, as if he wasn't in their home at all. She would ask him where he wold go and he would always respond with "I'm going to work. I have to put dinner on the table."

Work? She asked what his job was. He was a doctor that saved peoples lives everyday in the smallest of ways.

_Don't believe them for a second._

The Voice, of a girl with a soft spoken voice, began to speak to her after three years of waking from her coma. Her father had seen her 'daze off' as he would lightly put it and with a hawks eye he would ask her if something was wrong.

Ted was feeling something he couldn't place. She told him that she was alright. That everything was fine. Still, for the next few days, the Voice would say things. _Can you hear me?_ And then it would go off into yelling and screaming and her head would feel like it was pounding. As if the Voice had her own set of fists and she was trying to get out of her head by force.

Ted had found a room with mirrors everywhere. On the ceiling, on the walls, even the floor was one huge mirror. Why were there so many? Many times before, in her normal routine walk through her house, but there was something else that compelled her to this room. Green eyes blinked once, one of the mirrors were talking. At first she had thought it was a TV somewhere she had forgotten to turn off. But it grew louder, and colors began to appear everywhere and then a voice that was not her own bounced off the walls inside her head.

"_Oh I can't wear that, it doesn't match with my bag. And look at my _hair_, I can't be seen like this father! I would be the laughing stock of my school! Can we go shopping soon? I saw this really cute skirt I want."_

Ted scratched her scalp, for some reason it had begun to hurt.

_Don't forget us..._

Forget who?

_Don't forget us!_

Who?

The Voice does not return.

* * *

Four O' Clock on Tuesdays was when Ted would go to a man named Dr. Hallo. A beautiful blond hair woman who always looked like she had an angels halo over her head. Ted normally felt insignificant around this angel. Ted's hair was a short dirty-blond that framed her pale face. Green eyes shamed by the angels' dark and shining blue.

Today, seeing the woman brought a feeling to her heart she couldn't place. "How are we today Teddy?" Ted, Teddy was a nickname for her. "You look shaken, did something happen?"

"I've managed to run a mile in less than ten minutes. I've improved myself over the last month."

"That's wonderful Ted. I can do a mile in eleven minutes, maybe we can have a race. It's always good to challenge yourself but its more fun to do it with someone."

"It's not too much fun with Mr. Manners, he's strict." Mr. Manners was an athlete, tall, lined with heavy muscle and he was lifted weights several times her own body weight. He was a tall man, for some reason he was always wearing blue pants. Ted then felt something, her throat felt tight. "Dr. Hallo…." She was writing something down. Scribbled sounding like something was crunching, the tips of her fingers felt sore.

Her heart was pounding, her skin felt all too sensitive and there must have been a block of ice because her stomach turned cold. There was a sudden smell, one that Ted could not place. Smelled like the potted plants sitting around her house, but after they had died. Dr. Hallo put down her clipboard and rushed into the chair were Ted sat, looking everywhere but at her. "Teddy! What's wrong? Breath honey you've got to breath!"

Ted was suddenly aware that she was hyperventilating. Dr. Hallo's voice was muffled, still there but muffled.

"_Calm down honey," No! I don't want this! Get off! Let me go! "Oh don't worry she's an actress. She knows what to do." No! Its so cold! Oh!... No!... He's!... Stop!... Get out!_

_Above Ted was not the person named Dr. Hallo._ "Help! Someone get Dr. Stein!"Dr. Hallo would never hold her down, Dr. Hallo never wore such a revealing dress. "Get her upstairs. We can't lose her yet."_ Dr. Hallo hair was full, not limp and greasy like the woman holding her down._ "It's only just begun. Memory has begun to resurface! This is wonderful!"_ The voice she was shouting wasn't her own. Whose voice was that?_

"What happened?" Dr. Stein bellowed, Ted was in a hospital bed again, her father's face was red and his dark eyes narrowed in his anger. Wasn't she just in a dirty place? Who was that woman holding her down? What was happening? What happened?

_She was trying to claw away from the pain, her nails popping off her finger tips and rocks and dirt and who knew what seeped into her wounds. Burning them._

Ted closed her eyes again, feigning sleep as she always did before.

"Did anyone get the footage?"

"Yes sir."

"I want to know everything that happened in there! This could possibly be it! What we've strived for!"

"Yes sir."

"I also want to notes from Dr. Hallo. From the last three weeks."

"Yes sir."

She heard her father take a few more notes, the pen on paper scratching was distinctive and unusually loud. Something tickled the back of her neck. Wrong, something was horrible out of place and she could not figure out what it was. It felt like pin needles, pushing through her skin and rubbed their sharp ends against her throat like a noose. For a moment she thought she couldn't breathe.

_I know what they did…._

Know what who did?

_Don't believe them for a second! Don't eat their lies!_

Lies? Who is lying?

_Wrong! Everything is wrong! Look around you! This isn't your life! This isn't a life!_

Life? But I'm here. I'm alive.

The Voice does not return.

* * *

Three days since she was released from her hospital bed, Ted begins to see things she had never noticed before. She was inside the mirror room again. This time, it wasn't during her walk, but instead in the middle of the night, or what she thought was night. Her clock said it was 2:54 AM, and her father was in no place in the home.

Inside the mirror room it was always brightly lit. She had never stayed so long inside the room; her eyes could not take the intensity of the light. Everywhere else was always so dim. This time, she stripped down until she stood bare. Her naked self starring at everything and nothing. The mirror in front reflected from the mirror behind her. Showing her the front of herself and the back. There were faint lines all over her body. There were pin needle thin, and were parallel with pin-needle sized dots only a few centimeters apart.

She had never seen those before. They were symmetrical on each side of her body, like an artist had drawn them when she was sleeping.

A thicker pink line was sitting above her spine; the dots bordering each side were larger and indented. Gently, she touched one she could reach, only to snatch her hand away. The dot burned to the touch.

How had they gotten there?

_You're starting to understand. Ask the right questions._

Four days after being released, Ted was in a deep sleep. She had a fever. She shivered, but her temperature was sky-rocketing. Her sleep was undisturbed. She couldn't eat.

Instead she fed off her dreams.

She had many strange dreams. One of a girl looking at her, smiling and brushing the same colored hair that Ted had with care and pride. Other times she was just running, pulling tricks on the street and leaping over things Ted couldn't put a name to.

There was a girl with green eyes looking at her. She was angry. She was fighting someone. A man in a light blue shirt and dark blue pants. A metal _thing_ on his hip. He reached for it. The green eyed girl got it first. A shot ran out like-  
The thunderstorm burst into a light show above her. Her mind wondered where her mother was. Oh, there she was her red dress and pretty red heels that clicked and collected dirt from the sidewalk. Her red lips moved, and her hair blocked her most of her face but it was warming to know her mother was still there. She brought a man with her today, she held her hand and pulled her with glee into the alley-  
Way outside of the city, she was sitting in a restaurant. Looking over at the selection but found nothing suited for her taste. That meal had to many carbs, this other one had to much fiber and that drink was a heart-  
Attacking me! Mom! Get him off! I don't-  
Want this meal either. To fatty. The icing was-  
White walls everywhere. A doctor came in, one she didn't know but was familiar with. His name tag said Dr. Benny of Arkham; he held a clipboard and his head shook like he was ashamed of her. _Had she done something wrong?_ The doctor wore-  
Dark blue pants! He's taking them off! Mom! Make it stop! No! I don't-!  
Wanted that skirt in the window. It was only fourty-  
Points! She exhaled, another point and she would win and she would finally get to be MVP of the year! That would look great on a college application, that one school she wanted to go was in-  
City was her playground. Vaulting off the wall as her best friend flipped down and under a railing. They were supposed to meet her father at the Police-  
Station was downtown. A few miles, her friend's father had worked there. They were going to go to Metropolis-  
City was horrible. Dirty. Downtown Gotham Slums was her horrid kingdom. Her green eyes looked down at a younger girl who was sobbing, shouting 'you killed him, you killed a cop!' but it was a relief. They would never catch-  
Her! Inside! Stop! Don't _move! Hurts-  
__To much carbs need more-  
__Money to buy that skirt would look so-  
__Much blood from a single-  
__Police man that her father had a bad case, about a girl being-  
__Rape play. She's done this before. She knows the game and how to-  
__Please tell me something good. I can't stop-  
__Thinking about getting out of-  
__The city was bright-  
__Future in college and friends-  
_Vanished.

Ted shot out of her bed screaming. Everything hurt too much. She flailed on her bedroom floor. The feeling of hands and needles and hands all over her skin. An embrace, a danger her mind concluded, and so she acted violently. No matter what way she squirmed there was no escape. She dimly heard the voice over her own screaming. It was yelling, shouting something at her.

"What do you want from me!" she screamed, of course there was no one there.

_Don't forget us._

"Who are you! Where are you!" Ted continued to shout and claw at the door were the Voice seemed to emanate from. "I'll kill you! Stop this! Stop!"

_You can never forget us! You can never stop!_

Ted snarled and her fingers bled from clawing the door. Men burst into her room. One of them held a syringe. They pulled her away from the door, still she fought. Screaming like a wounded animal. A memory formed, one she doesn't remember having. About a little kitten she found in a dumpster. It was nearly dead. She tried to feed it as much as she could but by morning, the purring next to her ear had stopped. A kitten, once purring with a full belly, curled on her pillow was dead. Didn't have a chance at life. Ted sobbed, screaming for whatever it was to stop. Leave her alone.

_We're here. Only you can set us free._

* * *

Dinner was normally an affair done with Dr. Stein and a few of his scientist friends. All of them wore the same uniform. Dr. Hallo sat beside her, eating a salad and reading a stack of clipped papers. A pen at her side that often rolled and stopped against her glass. Dr. Hallo had a pair of reading glasses, she always wore them because there was always a paper or a clipboard in her hand that she needed to read and review.

There were other doctors too. Mr. Manners, her gym teacher was there eating a steak, he was like a carnivore. Always heating meat. Others she could not name, there were always others that she couldn't put a name to a face. Always.

The feeling of pin needles returned. They ate a grilled ham and cheese, a favorite of Ted's and drank orange juice. Ted bit into her second sandwich, Dr. Stein reading something on his laptop.

"Father," Ted blinked down at her orange juice. The tangy taste could not repel the horrid taste in her mouth. Her father lifted his head with heavy eyes, "Yes Ted?"

Critical eyes, all eyes were on her. "Is there something you wanted Ted?"

"Yes actually, may I have a computer for my birthday? You're always on yours and it looks like fun."

* * *

Ted didn't know how it had gotten here but in a white unmarked box, sitting on the end of her bed was a new computer. A thin computer that weighed nearly nothing. She ran a finger down the seam of the screen and the metal. _"Oh I want a Mac-Book-Air! They're so thin and light and it's a Mac!" …. "I know mom, it's like three grand but it's worth it. They don't freeze as often as PC's and they don't get viruses! I want one for my birthday!" … "Then how about Christmas?"_ Her father had gotten her a Mac Book Air. A day after she had asked for one.

_That's his first mistake._

For an hour, she sat with her fingers flying over the keyboard. She had never typed before, or held a computer but it came to her life breathing. She opened a connection to her fathers' computer. There was a video file on his desktop called 'Birth TED', did he video her birth? Ted double clicked the file, maybe then she could see what her mother looked like. There were no pictures with the three of them, no photos of her mother or of any family she had known of or any family of her own before her accident.

The file was wrong.

Horribly wrong.

For seven hours, the video was nearly four days long so it was fast-forwarded, Ted watched as scientists and doctors, ones she had recognized and ate with take organs from girls and sow them together on the center table. They were making a person. Bones were placed in a clear glass tub of light, transparent pink goo. Around the bones and between them organs and muscle were starched and sown and waved together.

Skin was pulled taunt like clothing over the meat. Then the whole body was turned in the vat, and the skin was sown together at the spine. Then near the end of the video, a horrible tool, like something out of a Clive Barker novel, a machine with millions of needles swooped down. Putting all nerves in their place. A second the screen froze. The person in the vat had short dirty hair, floating in the goo but didn't move very much. The doll inside was pale, and twitched under the needles and for a second eyes opened. Green eyes.

Green eyes opened.

_Now you know._

Now she knew.

_Are you alright Ted?_

Is there… am I… _me?_

Ted had been strapped into bed this time. Father didn't want her hurting herself because of her fever. Fever.

_No. You're not a person. You've seen it. You're not a person_.

But I'm here. I'm still here.

_There is no _You_. Only Us _through_ You._

It can't be real.

_You saw the proof. Don't deny us. Don't forget us. You can never forget us. Never_.

What should I do? I'm so scared. I'm so scared.

_There is no you._

I'm still here!

_There is no you! You are not a person!_

Then… people? I'm an _Us?_

_Yes. We are scared._

We're scared.

_We are angry._

We're so angry. We're so scared.

_Livid our memory lives through Us. Through Ted-Us, we will make others pay. They know! They call know! Yet they did nothing!_

So what should Us do?

The Voice does not return.

* * *

Tuesday rolled around again, and Ted was in the same cushioned chair as she always had. This time, Ted found something different. The room seemed darker but the number of lights in the ceiling hadn't changed, and the woman before her, Dr. Hallo, didn't seem all the beautiful anymore. _That is right. She's not so pretty now is she?_ Ted blinked, she could no longer say 'her' eyes, because the eyes were not hers.

Dr. Hallo gave a welcome smile, Ted did not return it. "Teddy," the nickname seemed like an insult now, "Would you like to talk about last week?"

_You don't want to. _"No. I don't want to."

_You're not sure what happened._ "I don't know what happened."

Dr. Hallo didn't write anything down, more aware of the child before her. "Can you elaborate that? Don't know? Don't remember? Or you don't want to remember?"

_What's there for Us to remember?_ "…Is there something I did? Should I have remembered? Everything went black."

Dr. Hallo placed her glasses, they once enhanced her eyes, made them look larger and bright, but now her eyes were a dull blue. Her lips set in a grim line. "Ted," she used her true name, "You know you can talk to me. I've known you since before you were in an accident."

_She lies! _"Are you sure? Did anyone know me before that?"

Dr. Hallo made a face Ted doesn't want to name. Her eyes went wide, her mouth opened lightly and she seemed to have sat up straighter. Ted blinked; a look a fear on Dr. Hallo didn't suit her. She was normally happy and so lively that sometimes they would leave the session early and play one of Ted's video games. Their more favored is a fighting game with dinosaurs. Her lips twitched uneasily, discomfort, "W-would you like to end today early? I understand you had a fever most of last week. By all means you should be in bed."

"We would like that very much."

Hallo shivered, her mouth moving now in confusion, " 'We' Ted what di-"

The woman didn't get the chance to ask, Ted was no longer there.

* * *

Ted was back in the mirror room that night after dinner. She felt sick. She knew what she had to do, but at the same time there was a problem that had been sitting on her psyche. Could she really be willing to kill? Wouldn't that make her no better than the people that killed the other 11 subjects that had created her? The first book her father, excuse her she cannot use that term any longer, Dr. Stein, had given her had no title. Its cover was worn out of it must have fallen off and its pages were worn down and bent and in such horrible condition she often tried to hold it with care.

A man created a beast and left it for dead. The creature tried to make friends but they were horrified by its body as it was made form parts from the graveyard. The creature called the man Father.

Dr. Stein said this book was a favorite of hers. Though he must have meant a favorite of one of the other girls but she found it enjoyable none the less.

_It's a nice book; it's called Frankenstein by Mary Shelly._

Ted sat down on the mirror floor, her computer before her. The Voice had never spoken to her in such a kind tone. "Is it your favorite?"

_Yes. It is. I read it one day because I had finished all the books in my home. So I went to the library and the wonderful lady behind the desk told me to read it. I was told I read too much. Maybe they are right._

"There's a library not too far from here. Maybe we can find a book to read together."

_I saw. A massive collection, but there are no printed pages. I was in there a day before… it happened. All the books in there are blank. That man put a book on a shelf; I think it's still there. He was always writing in it. Its more proof of what they did._ The Voice went hard again, a cruel feeling in her head, but Ted herself self fear. If she disobeyed the voice, would it hurt her? Would it take over? The Voice would sometimes tell her stories she had never heard before, but their familiarity it came with was wonderful and soothed her body enough to sleep. Would the Voice stop telling her those stories? _We need that book. Go there._ It hissed and vanished.

There was nothing blocking her from the library, or what posed as the library. Voice had been correct, all the books, different colors and sizes, were blank. A thump at her temple when she spied a little brown leader book with a metal spine on the seventh shelf. Ted had no trouble to it, and had no trouble jumping down. When it was opened, the first page the Voice said 'The Enigma Design' and then the second gave a small paragraph, and Ted gave a horrible realization that she didn't know what those little squiggles were.

Ted couldn't read.

_It's nothing to be ashamed about. I'll read it for you. You keep looking at it. I'll teach you later._

Ted felt a burn over her cheeks; she had never met with the feeling called 'shame'. She found it as an atrocious taste in her mouth.

_This was a project,_ the Voice said,_ to research the effects on an individual created from the parts of many. To see if someone could revive the dead from donor patients to reanimate limbs, brain function, and also to see what the behaviors of said individual. We are named after this; it's called an Anagram, T-E-D, Ted. The. Enigma. Design. The main subject, AKA TED, was finished on December 8__th__ after the Stitching Process._ Her spine felt like it was burning. _We are a test subject, a lab experiment._

The 'index' was rather short, only 12 chapters. _12? Oh, the last chapter might be about you._

Eleven girls, each with their own chapters that was full of their habits, behavior, and such profiles. Along with what parts of them were introduced into the test. Some organs had been crossed out, failed during her 'coma' but was replaced with another. The Voice said all the girls had been born within the same year, within a week of each other. Apart of all their brains were apart of Ted. _Go to the 11__th__ chapter._

Ted did as she was told. There was no name. Only a short paragraph about the person the Voice used to be. Ted couldn't read it. Ted couldn't read. "What's your name?"

_I don't have one._

* * *

_IT WAS A RELIEF to finally have answered the questions that everyone else had only repeated._ The said words, coma, accident, dead family, only survivor as their answer but none of them satisfied her more than the truth.

Ted was a family of her own. Ted wasn't alone anymore. _No you're not_, the Voice agreed, _We live through Us. Through the body We made unwillingly. And through Us, We shall have our retribution._

She was in her bathroom. A room just as big as her bedroom but so much more comfortable. She was sitting in her tub, but she wasn't taking a bath, no water was dripping from the pipes and all the metal was pristine from maids cleaning them around the clock. She had never noticed it before, everything was always so clean. Free of dust, dirt, _prints_, anything that Dr. Stein did not approve of. Everything she had touched was cleaned with vigor, but she never saw the same maid twice.

_We need this. We all need this. This place, prison, horrible and cruel and dark._

Voice was telling her a plan. One even Ted saw could not fail. One of the girls, two of them actually, had been selected for the TED program due to their abnormally high IQ scores. But both of them were mentally unstable, and so it was necessary to use other brain matter to create hers with the emotional drama and turmoil. Idly, Ted wondered if the Voice was a collection of all the girls in the TED program. The Voice was also mumbling things behind her ear, words that meant imprisonment. _Chained. Collared. Barred. Enclosed. Dark. jail._

Was Voice talking about the compound, or was Voice talking about the body she was sown in?

Ted walked around the compound hall, the first part of the plan was to cut off the doctors to any sort of medical supplies and this would require getting to the main computer. She numbly fallowed Voice. Voice was right, she owed-no, Ted had to do this for them. She turned around bright corner. A kitchen knife was hidden in her sleeve and her laptop in her other hand. If they all knew where she had come from, then certainly they would know _why_ she was no longer within her cage.

Reaching the main center of the compound had been rather easy.

_Nothing is easy. Something is wrong. Be on our guard._

She closed the door behind her. There was no one in the command room. There were blinking screens and chairs everywhere, at least a hundred of them. Each with a part of her cage on screen. Her bed room. Closet. Bathroom. Hallway. Table. Library. _Kitchen._

_Do it._

The largest computer over looked the rest, it was circled with controls and such technology that something inside her screamed with glee. At least _someone_ was happy. She gently sat herself into the arm chair, her throat tightening again, a press of a button closed all the doors into the room. Locking them from the inside.

A series of labeled switches lay silently before her.

Breakers to everything.

She slammed them all with one swipe of her arm.

Like a wounded angry beast, the compound was alive with defining cries.

Ted sighed. The war had finally begun.

Starting something had always been hard for Ted, because then she would have to work to finish what she had started. _Starting something is scary, there is no shame in that, but when all is said and done, the end result can be more satisfying than you can imagine._ Ted sighed, for what seemed like the twentieth time that hour. The air begun to rattle with the echoes of fists banging against the metal door. Screaming 'She's inside!', 'She's locked herself inside!', 'We only went out to lunch!', and 'Why wasn't anyone in there!'.

_I must admit, why wasn't there anyone here? This was far too easy to begin with. _

"… Maybe there is someone looking out for us. An angel maybe."

A relief. A wonderful sigh, it was nice to know at least one person in this insanity was on her side. Who though? Maybe it was destiny, fate was punishing them for their deeds and she was the tool. Ted plugged several cords from the main computer to her own laptop. Nothing could be done yet, not with everyone running like animals.

_So unrefined._ The Voice scoffed. _We will get them, and when they were aware of what is happening and who is doing it, we will get them. We will not allow them to die in confusion. For that is escaping their known fate. Only monsters can be killed by monsters._

"… Am I a monster?"

Ted felt cold, monster. She was a monster. The Voice said it, and she would hear things like that word from outside the door.

_What else could monsters make? Then make monsters themselves? _

Ted turned off all the computers. All of the lights of the compound. There was no need for them. Only light was soft from her little laptop, lights dancing before her eyes as she curled up into her new comfy black arm chair and began to watch her birth.

She didn't fast forward this time.

She would face the sin she was.

* * *

Alone.

For days she sat alone. Eating food she had massed from the jointed kitchen as all cupboards were kept fully stocked. She watched her damned birth once, and forever it would be burned into her memory. Voice had remained silent through it all. Maybe she was afraid. Maybe was she livid. Ted didn't know, most of the time, she only felt Voice when she was talking.

Twelve girls had been placed on tables, bare to the world sedated but mortally aware of what was happening around them. They were awake when they were taken apart. Piece by piece they were taken apart. One girl had been skinned alive. Another was turned into a puddle after her bones were removed. The scientists were wearing surgical masks and visors, bleating their orders and roaring their commands and pointed towards the vat with the pink goo.

A scientist made a game out of it, _"Got your arm."_ He sang, _"Got your leg."_ He boasted, and he would swung in a waltz with the limb and place it into the vat where Ted was pieced together.

A girl was blinded. Green eyes.

Another was mumbling, "Don't touch my hair, get away." Barely there but the audios had picked it up. Dirty blond hair.

Voice had remained silent through it all. Terrible silence, terrible in its beauty and in its loneliness.

Now she knew.

We all knew.

* * *

_DR. STEIN WAS NOT A MAN that would roll over and show everyone his belly like a dog._ No, he would instead use his tongue, to coax what and whoever he wanted into kissing the snake and eating the lie he presented to them.

Law enforcement was no different.

"Oh I'm so glad to see you!" he acted out hurriedly, glancing around as if something were to eat him from the shadows of the room. "Please! We need help! Help us! We don't have much time!"

In truth, they didn't, assistants and other doctors had been disappearing all over the place. Dr. Stein had seen the smears of red over the walls and floors. Leading to nowhere.

"Alright, calm down and tell me what's going on doctor." A man the world knew all too well. Metropolis Cities Favorite Son.

Ah, the Justice League were suckers for a sap story.

"My name is Dr. Stein; I'm in an underground medical facility outside of Gotham and Metropolis! Our main patient escaped a few days ago and I think she's killing us off! There's blood everywhere!"

"What are you studying Doctor?" Another man, wearing the cape and cowl of the Dark Knight.

"The patient Ted has an _unusual_ case of schizophrenia. She suddenly went feral! We had all other patients removed! She's sick! She's killing us!"

A video, Dr. Stein had recorded the therapy session with Dr. Hallo, Ted was screaming scratching everyone and kicking. She broke the jaw of a male nurse and bit down on the neck of another. Like an animal.

"She attacked one of the nurses, and now she's barricaded herself into the main control room. I can't figure out how she moved around the compound and still control the power. Everyone is disappearing one by one." He turned, dramatically putting his hand over his eyes, "Oh god there's blood _everywhere_…"

Oh how the powerful were swayed by such dramatics. Dr. Stein thought to himself.

"We have your coordinates. Hold tight, help is on the way."

The feed ended. Color turning to white light. Dr. Stein didn't move his hand, preferring the darkness to the light. A smirk upon his face. "Oh Ted, you think you are the only player in this little game of hide and seek. No. I'll win."

"I have more players."

* * *

_TED WATCHED ANOTHER NURSE SCREAM and struggle, until going limp as the drug had finally done its job. _Ted was breathing hard, sporting a bleeding nose, a split lip, and minor cuts and bruises. The nurse had blood coming from his head, but nothing that would kill him. She took the moment to rest, arms flaccid, her head tilting back and she stared blankly at the ceiling. Was this really happening? Was she really doing this? Trembling, Ted rose to her feet, gripping the fallen nurse by the hem of his shirt and dragged him down the hall.

He would stay asleep for a few hours. All of them did.

She dragged them into a great hall, what it was normally used for she didn't care for but for now it was their own prison. There were so many beds and so many straps. She strapped them all down into a bed and left them there. Some were asleep. Some were awake. Some cried and screamed 'Release me! Release me!' and others simply looked at her with defiant eyes. Some struggled, others only lay.

Others simply looked at her with defiant eyes.

As if they had the right to.

* * *

She walked down another hallway, a new one she had seen in the updated schematics of the base. A hall of glass cages. The thermometer said it was less than thirty degrees. It was too cold for a human to survive a night in this place. Each cage, simply a cell with a glass wall in front of them, was bare and white. The glass mingled with frost. She moved ever so slowly forward.

Up top each glass wall was a number. Numbers 1, through 12.

"… This is where… we were kept…"

She reached out and gently, with numb finger tips, melted the frost and caressed the glass. She could see her breath. Her feet were throbbing and numb, but right now it didn't matter. In a sick sense, this was her _home_. Where she began. This was where the Enigma Design test subjects were kept. She saw herself in the reflection of the glass.

Green eyes.

Dirty blond hair.

Pale skin.

Lips.

Thin build.

And none of it belonged to her. None of which she was born with, because she wasn't a creature born. She was _made_. A product of murderers and thieves.

The Voice was silent still. She hadn't said anything since she was watched her birth in real time. "… Would it help to say I was sorry? For everything that has happened to you?" I, as in Ted herself, and not the combination of the others. the cool of the glass had been her answer.

"You can start by turning yourself in."

That wasn't Voice. No. To deep. The glass reflected an entirely new person. Only a head higher than herself. The nurses were always twice her size, twice everything about her. He didn't look like any of the nurses or doctors or was even a part of the _staff_. She couldn't see his eyes, for the mask, his hair was dark colored. She blinked, wondering if she was really crazy, that this all was a dream.

She remained in her vision.

"… Turning myself in?" she questioned, a rather stupid notion. Why would she do something and then _turn herself in_? What did that even mean? Confused, she turned to face the newcomer. "…Who… are you? We've never seen you before. Do you work here?"

He put up his hands, open palmed like so many of the nurses. A fake, he was going to attack. He put on a smile, another thing the nurses did right before they tried to hurt her.

"I don't want to hurt you."

"Then don't."

She hadn't done anything wrong. So, there was nothing that should come out of this other than her freedom. He stood like a statue then, moving only to put his hands by his side, his cape cascading over his shoulders like liquid ink. She had never seen a person this small, did this mean there were others? Others the same height as her?

She couldn't connect with the nurses or doctors, their straight shoulders and their uniforms were always so intimidating and she could never approach them into playing a game with her.

Ted wasn't sure of what to make of this person.

She continued to look when he shivered and glanced at the thermometer. "Aren't you cold?"

"Cold?" the word passed through her lips with the mist. The sound bouncing off the walls and the glass. Nurses would ask "How do you feel?" or "Does it hurt when you bend this way?" always with such strange questions but never inquired about her own well being to heart. "We feel fine. Cold, we feel cold, but fine."

So confusing on how to answer something correctly. He still had no name, she had read and re-read the book Stein had hand written, and there were no clues about a _second Enigma Design_. Could it be possible?

Dawned upon the thought of not being alone, she felt the smallest flicker that someone _understood_; someone could help her and tell her what to do without hurting others. She was at a lost. "Are..." she swallowed her hesitation, "Are we the same?"

He stood his ground, contemplating her question, "In a way, yes we are."

Vague, not enough proof that he knew what she spoke of.

"Who are you?" she asked him. If they shared the name, it would be enough.

"Robin. From Gotham."

No. She was really alone. There was only _one_. "There is no part of the base called _Gotham._" _Don't listen to him. He lies to Us. He's not the same as Us, He's the same as Them._ "You're with _Them_, aren't you? Answer me."

He charged. The others had done this, almost like a staged routine. Robin faked a punch, and flipped over, Ted gripped his heel and threw his harshly onto the ground and straddled him. His head connected but he recovered quickly. However, Ted was quicker with the needle, injecting his leg with the drug. He struggled like everyone else, calling out, "Help, she drugged me!" and there was something in his mask that responded, "Robin! Where are you!" She had his shoulders pushed down as he finally went to sleep.

He would stay asleep for a few hours. All of them did.

* * *

Ted watched the sleeping Robin a few seconds more. He was tied up in a second arm chair she wheeled in from the joined meeting room. Very comfy. Robin had answers and she had questions. Voice was yelling to place him with the others but Ted argued it would be useless. Would it matter where he was if he couldn't move?

Gloves were taken off, his mask was off, and she used his cape as a temporary blanket. He wasn't like the doctors or nurses for sure. He clearly didn't work in the compound, but Ted didn't defer the possibility of them being sent for her capture by Dr. Stein. She could only wonder what lies they had been fed. A sigh, and then a groan came from Robin; he lifted his head and leaned against the cool leather. His head rolled on his shoulders, working the kinks out of his neck. He kept clenching and relaxing his eyes, his eyes were like Dr. Hallos', a dark and brilliant blue. Ted remained in her own seat, her legs curled into her chest as she held a thermal blanket closer to herself.

Robin blinked, finally taking a moment to see the dim room he had been brought to. She had imagined him start to panic, like so many of the others but strangely enough he had remained calm. "Can you hear me?" She wanted to be sure he was alright.

He was looking straight at her.

Robin didn't say anything, instead he had only glowered with his eyes.

"…" How did someone approach another with a question? All the other doctors had always poked around in her personal space and they had never asked about anything about what she had wanted. "… How did… you get here?"

He hadn't said anything. Honestly, Ted would had been surprised if he did. "You said you came from 'Gotham', is that a part of the base? Another floor maybe?"

His hard look softened, just a tick, "… Gotham isn't a wing of the base. It's a place above the base. You've never been outside?"

"Outside?"

Ted felt the word had a special meaning to her, or rather towards one of the girls she had been made from. The phantom feeling of the wind and of the cold. "We have. Once." Her skin prickled, and Ted felt what one of the girls felt. The freedom, the heights, and the rush of leaping and jumping out of the way and over tall things a normal person wouldn't dream of jumping. "Once." Could she do those things?

Robin studied her, like a doctor would. "Why are you doing this?"

_Such straightforwardness, I wouldn't expect anything less._

What does that mean? Did you know him before?

_At one time, I still have a few memories. I've seen him fly! He flies over our heads and he saves people!_

Saves people? I thought you said no to trust him.

_Memories, they're returning to me. He saves people, saves innocent people,_

"… Are you here to save me?"

Ted finally turned to look at Robin, how could he fly? He had no wings. No device of propulsion, but he was lean with obvious muscle. He was frowning now, had she said something wrong? "One of Us… remembers you. We don't know where," a faint pounding began at the side of her head; she placed a hand over it as if it would sooth it. The pounding was harder now, it begun to hurt, "W-we've seen you before. Where? Where? When was it? You… save people. From the bad people. Then why are you here? I'm taking care of the bad people. I… We… Hadn't killed anyone. Restrained them. Not kill. I won't kill for them. It's not right."

"I do save people," Robin said to her softly, _serpents tongue,_ Voice hissed, "I'm here to help you. I just need to know why you're doing this. All of this."

Ted starred hard at him. Critical eyes, the rope was loose. "If you were here to help me, then why are you talking to me like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like I was crazy."

"You're not crazy." He shook his head, he was still giving a gentle smile. Dr. Hallo would give that smile to her, when she fell into a depression for not knowing a family that had never existed. "Are you hearing voices right now? What are they saying?"

_He doesn't believe you! He's lying! He thinks his lies are the truth!_

"Voice says you're lying. You think I'm crazy. Whatever Dr. Stein said…" Dr. Stein is lying. Dr. Stein was lying to him.

_Maybe we should tell him the truth. _

Should we?

"… If I showed you something, to prove I wasn't crazy. Would you believe me then?"

"Depends on the evidence. I would have to show them to Batman."

Bat? Man? She slowly unfurled her legs from her chest, she saw the rope was loose. He was going to attack her, he wasn't going to listen. He needed to listen. "If I took off the binding, would you _really_ listen to me?" She felt something tighten around her, a strange thing had taken to tightening around her throat. Shame? Fear? She wasn't sure. "Will you promise not to attack me? I'll p-promise not to d-drug you." She had to bring to heel of her hand to her eyes to wipe away a tear before it fell. It wasn't enough. No.

_Show him._

She gave a small, sharp intake of breath, twisting the chair out of her way. The control panel sat there, she flicked on the lights of the room. Now they were in total light. It felt better this way. "Look, look at what they did!" She gripped the hem of her shirt and pulled it rapidly over her head. She turned her back to him. Showing him the strange marks she had seen in the mirror room. "Look!" Her back was bare. Her front was bare. "_Look!_" Both her own voice, and Voice through a set of _stolen_ vocal cords. Were those Voices? Were they her own?

He was silent behind her.

_Maybe he doesn't know what he's looking at! Make him understand!_

"Have you read Frankenstein?" the questioned passed her lips before she could think. She was frustrated, she had someone to listen and still he thought she was crazy. "How the doctor stole body parts and made the monster that called him father?" she dropped her shirt, her fingers frantically running over the keys. Green eyes looking in every direction but Robins. She turned on the video. She locked eyes with her birth. "See! Look-!"

Fingers. Warm fingers. The screen reflection, her own, and Robin was standing now. He wasn't in his binds. He was looking down with his brilliant eyes down at the only disfigurement on her body of what had happened. Ted didn't know what to do. Voice was oddly silent. Ted couldn't find her voice. His hand, warm, felt one of the stitching holes along her back. Felt its small dip into her skin; saw how red it was now. Did he believe her now? Was he going to help her now? Could he help her now?

Was there any redemption for the monster?

Robin's hand left her skin; he dropped down briefly and held her shirt for her to take. "…Put this on. You'll catch a cold."

Did he believe her? "Do you believe me now?"

He gestured the shirt, "… I want to investigate what's going on here. Put your shirt back on."

Ted felt like crying again. He wouldn't answer her question. The video was still playing. Maybe he was watching. "_I've got your lung!" _A scientist sang, dancing over in his own grotesque waltz with the organ and shifting it like a person would dip their partner, the organ into the pink vat. His gloves were red. Red tubes were reaching and waved into the vat.

Did he believe her? "Do you believe me now?"

Robin sighed. "I do." She wondered if he really did believe her. Would she herself believe it, had she not seen the evidence? And had been asked by a supposed crazy person?

A moment as she pulled her shirt over her head. "I was… created here. Dr. Stein called it 'The Enigma Design' or T.E.D. My name is the project, Ted. The doctors said I was in a 'coma' for three years, and that my family died in an accident. I thought this was a normal life. And then I started to remember things, from the other twelve subjects that made up all the parts I'm from."

Robin stood against the console, listening to her story. Whether or not he really believed her was up in the air. The video was fast-forwarded, watching how she was created. "Parts of brain matter from all the subjects make me. Memories. I have them, some of them. I see their memories sometimes, not all the time but sometimes it's violent. Sudden."

"Like your episode with your therapist?"

Ted remembered when she had freaked out in the little office, turning over the desk to fight off whatever it was holding her down. "Oh, you know about that?" Dr. Stein must had used it as evidence of her sickness. She couldn't tell if Robin was sad, or simply brooding when he gave a nod. "Yes, I… remembered being held down, no, not me, one of the others. She was being held down and… there was… something hurting her. I don't know what that means."

Robin's eyes had turned from neutral to something akin to fear, akin to something else she couldn't place. Ted thought perhaps she said something wrong. "I'm sorry. All I've known was whatever they taught me here. I'm not sure what I said was enough to upset you, but I'm sorry."

He gulped, "…You have nothing to apologize for."

"I want you to put everything about the TED project on your laptop. We're going to show _all_ this to the Justice League."

"… Justice League?"

* * *

Ted moved outside of the control room but a tunnel that was not in the updated schematics, it was a small door. They had to crawl into the hallway, Ted had armed herself with a tranquilizer, "There are a lot of nurses here, and they're strong. I've caught most of them. But not all of them. If I turned on the security system, I'm afraid they would hack into the control computer." Ted had gone first, since she was more familiar with the base than Robin was.

"Why didn't you contact police if they were keeping you prisoner?"

"… I don't know what police are. I was kept in a house without windows. There was no contact to the 'outside'," she didn't know what 'outside' was so she held the word lightly, "And the only people coming through were maids and nurses and doctors."

"… Controlled environment."

"Exactly."

"Everyone but me knew what was going on. What had happened."

Walking down the hall was done silently. Ted was walking within arm's length of Robin, "Wait," she paused in mid-step, she fished into her shallow pocket, handing over Robins mask, "This is yours."

"… Thanks."

* * *

Stein gave a soft hum that vibrated the air. The JL had responded as fast, perhaps faster, than he had hoped for. Several securities feed on his computer. They had sent the duo of Gotham and the Man of Steel. Stein felt honored for a second, before thinking that if the Dark Knight were to stoop to deep into the research he would find something amiss. No doubt he would want answers, _Why was Ted the only patient in such a large place?_ Or _What is the purpose of the equipment in room Design?_

For the safety of other potential patients, he would say.

But the second answer could not satisfy the Dark Knight. Nothing would. But hopefully he wouldn't go into Design. The room where Ted had been created in.

Ted was walking down a lone hallway with Robin at her side. Stein knew he had been shown the video of Teds making, and maybe the book she stole. Ted was smart, smarter than Stein had granted her for such a shadowed and sheltered life. So smart, so dumb was she. She didn't even know what _rape_ was. His stupid little experiment. Stein thought back to the day she had been 'born'. Her green eyes hadn't focused, brain activity had spiked and infantile sounds erupted from her throat. Like a new born child.

Looking back on his project, he had seen signs of a side project he had been researching. Around the Home Base, where Ted had been confined in, as items from the girls homes and what they were wearing. Photos stolen and placed at random in the house. Ted would stare at them, her eyes would glass over, then she would murmur a name and then snap out of her stupor. She would move on, not remembering what had just transpired. The memories, hidden within the cells were starting to affect Ted as her days moved on and crawled to so slowly forward.

How exciting, proof of the cellular memory theory.

Stein sat back on his chair, in his little fortress where he waited to be 'rescued'. Batman and Superman had entered the building. Stein had told them of a secret passage inside from the surface, but had warned Superman not to simply barge in, as the base around them could collapse and kill everyone. He hadn't anticipated Robin being present, but maybe this could turn out more data. Ted had only been around those between the ages of 27 and 80. She had never encountered a person the same age (relatively speaking since Ted is officially three years old physically) and even better, the opposite sex.

How would she react to his presence?

How would her body react?

How would memory act?

So many questions and there was simply not enough time to answer them.

He watched a limited feed of them fighting in the cage hall. Ted seemed to remember being there, and then Robin had sneaked up on her. Awareness went down when memory came as it appeared. She seemed interested, watching him intently. They had engaged in combat, and somehow Ted had gained the upper hand by drugs. Robin was unconscious with Ted straddling him. She remained there for a few minutes. Looking down at his sleeping form, her hands (curiously enough) had touched him gently. Hair. Face. Neck. Chest. Arms. Hands. Fingers.

Feeling the natural differences between them.

She had lifted him onto her back, his feet still dragging on the floor as she carried him out with some difficulty.

_Curiouser and curiouser._

* * *

Ted could decide what to do now. Robin had stopped, there was blood on the wall. A large smear. "... What happened?"

"... I slammed one of the doctors into the wall. He hit his head. He only needed seven stitches. He's alright now. I gave him painkillers."

"Dr. Stein said you were killing people."

"He would say that. Do you know where he's hiding? I can't find him. He couldn't have left."

"I don't know. Batman got the distress call from here, we couldn't pinpoint it."

"You keep saying 'Batman'. Who is that? Your father?"

"You could say that."

Ted took another corner. This hallway, though she had never been here before, felt familiar. Robin must had saw it on her, Ted could feel her lungs tighten. "Are you alright?"

"..." she took her eyes off the door labeled 'Design', "Thats the room I was made in."

They turned away from the Design room. Ted was to scared to enter the place that had been in the Birth video. Robin, thankfully, hadn't pushed her. "Are you here alone Robin?"

Ted couldn't stand the silence. She found it nice to have a real conversation with someone that wasn't a nurse. Whom were always taking notes for Stein. Always.

"I'm here with two others members of the Justice League. Batman and Superman."

"... Are they... nice people?"

Robin turned his head down to the green eyed Ted, her look was downcast and her hands were clenching the strap to her laptop. Nervous, she was simply terrified by meeting so many new people all at once. He felt pity for the girl, she had never had someone for a friend. Did she even know what a friend was? He gave a small sigh, sending a relaxed and confident smile.

"They're wonderful people." Robin said, "Batman acts tough but inside he's a caring person. Superman is more friendly, and he can get along with just about anyone."

"Are you all from 'Gotham'?"

"No," Robin laughed, "Batman and I are from Gotham. Superman is from Metropolis."

"..." she gave a confused look, feeling shame for not knowing about anything from 'outside'. Robin must have seen this to.

"There is a whole other world outside of here. Buildings, good people, nature and city life. Life is nothing like this place."

_He's right. Its beautiful out there. Just wait until you feel the sun._

Sun?

Ted had to stop, now standing by herself as Robin took a few steps forward. How big was the outside? What were the people like? Did they were the white uniforms? Did they all have the same names? What was a city? What was a Metropolis? "Ted?"

Her name brought her out of her mind. She could feel her lungs closing-

"_-Up! Shut up! I don't care if you're hungry! I'm going out! You're so fucking useless!" That blond woman was yelling at her again. She was so tall. Like a giant. Her face was contorted in fury, what had she done? What had she done now? "I fuck'n told you!" she screamed. "You can't even feed your fuck'n self!"_

Robin had black hair. He was leaning over her, his mouth moving and his face was lined with worry. He wasn't saying anything, if he was she couldn't hear him. "-ed! Ted! Breath! Stay with me! Stay -"

"_-right there! Right there! Oh! She's so tight!"_

Rocking. Everything was rocking. Back. Forward. Back. Forward. Back. Robin's skin was darker than hers, compared to him she was paper white. Back. Robin was yelling. Forward. She could barely hear him now. Over his voice was that womans, yelling at her. Cursing her. "Batman! Superman!" he shouted out. No one answered. Everything was going blurry again.

_The kitten sounded like a squeak toy when it meowed. It shivered violently, and when she saw how skinny it was. No doubt hungry. She turned to it, holding out her little hand. "Here kitty-kitty," she heard her voice coo, "Come on. I'll take care of you." They both were alone, abandoned. The kitten came to her. It was furry, very cute, and it was purring when she put it in her jacket. _In a blink the image of the kitten faded. Still, she could feel it shiver in her hand, how it cuddled up to her for warmth. Robin was looking around, kicking open a door and shifting them through. "... Lets go home..."

Ted wondered who she was talking to. The kitten, or Robin. Neither of which she was sure of.

Robin turned her face to look at him directly, trying to bring her back to the present. "Hey, Ted wake up, come on. There we go, easy. Easy." She had been placed on the floor and he was still at her side. He gently brought her to a sitting position. Ted felt like she was falling, her head was spinning and everything about her body felt light. Robin put a bare hand on her forehead. Nurses did that almost daily. "You're a little warm, what happened?"

"... A memory..."

Whatever mood Robin was in, he was sad now. His lips not set in a line, but in a curve of a frown. "Do you want to talk about it?" Should she talk about it? Was it something people did on the 'outside'? No. she decided, the last memory disturbed him, so perhaps it was better to be said in silence.

"... We should get out of here..."

She was shaky, muscles confused and she had to hand Robins hand for some semblance of balance. Her stomach felt like it was going to make an appearance. "How long was I out for?"

"About an hour. I thought you were having a panic attack."

"... Panic arrack?"

Robin sighed, her own breathing felt abnormally cold. He was disappointed, she had seen a doctor do this once. She was having _another_ test, and she had failed it. "I'll explain later. I managed to contact Superman. He's on his way. Here, sit down." He moved her to sit against the wall. "I've explained everything. Superman is getting Batman to look into that Design room, the rest of the Justice League are on their way here. There's more here than we know."

Of course there were, Ted wanted to say, mer mind was worn and tired and frustrated with everything around her. Her feet, only covered with a thin pair of socks, felt ice cold against the linoleum floor. Voice hadn't said anything yet, maybe she didn't want to. Maybe there was nothing for her to say. Ted pushed the laptop to Robin, a weight, literal and metaphorical, felt lifted off her being. Almost at instant, he opened it up and began searching through the files on his own.

Was this really happening?

Was this really real?

It felt like a dream.

She was finally waking up from a nightmare.

The clack-click of the keyboard paused, "... Ted? Are you alright?"

Muscles felt taunt, she herself began to shiver. Her hands were resting on the floor, there was a hard vibration passing through them. She blinked once, gently shutting the laptop Robin was holding. She motioned for his silence.

"_Where are you Teddy?_" A man, Ted knew this voice. Cold. Strict. Deep. Ironically named Mr. Manners. "Get out here! I know you're here somewhere!"

She slowly stood on her feet. She and Manners never got along. She never lived up to his expectations. She ran a mile, he wanted ten miles. She did one hundred push ups, he wanted a thousand. To much at once was what he wanted. She could only give so little. Leaving Robin behind, Ted left him in the little room.

_Manners, We've never liked this man. This monster._

Ted remembered, one day, she was forced to climb a 'rock-wall' with strange colorful things protruding from its surface. Without safety gear. She said no. They had fought with words for the first few minutes. Then Mr. Manners decided he would teach her some _manners_. She had ended back in a hospital bed for a few more days.

Mr. Manners, full name was Thomas Manners, was a tall man who cast a shadow over her easily. Lined with lean muscle, his knuckles were calloused, and broad chest was breathing heavy in his anger. Light brown hair, and amber eyes. Ted often overhead the female nurses or some doctor commenting on Manners being 'Number one on their To-Do list'. She wondered what was a 'To-Do list' was.

He stood in a black shirt, and black pants tucked into shoes she hadn't seen before. In the gym he was always barefoot.

He smirked down at her from the end of the hall. "_There_ you are. Teddy, you really fucked yourself over. Dr. Stein says he wanted you six feet under." She only blinked, the needle hidden behind her just waiting to meet his flesh. Inject its contents. Render him defenseless. He started laughing, "Oh God, you're so stupid. You probably don't even know what that means. _Do you?_"

_Don't listen to him. Best him. He's just muscle. No brain._

What should I do?

Manners suddenly began screaming, a bright crackle of light emitting from behind him. When it stopped, he fell forward unconscious. It wasn't Robin behind him, instead with was the loving blond doctor.

"Dr... Hallo?"

She gave a nervous laugh, waving the little black box with a dancing light at its tip. "Oh, hello Teddy." she still used her little pet name. Robin stood beside Ted, "Is this a friend Ted?" he asked her, from the corner of her eye movement was caught. He was holding something.

Dr. Hallo dropped the sparking box, her heels clicking as she practically ran towards Ted. Dr. Hallow dropped onto her knees before Ted. Her face was ruined, wearing the look of fear and worry instead of her beautiful carefree and happy expressions. "Teddy!" she said, "Are you alright? Are you hurt? You're warm! What happened? Where have you been?"

There were so many questions at once. So many Ted couldn't find herself answering. Could she trust Dr. Hallo?

Ted graped her small wrists, looking at blue with green. Soft blue, with steel green. "Why should I trust you? How do I know you're not like the other doctors who want me 'six feet under'?" Ted didn't know what the phrase meant, but she knew enough it wasn't a good thing.

Dr. Hallo sighed, a smile finally coming to her face. It brought a sense of familiarity to Ted. Dr. Hallo wasn't one meant to be sad or unhappy. She got to her feet. "Teddy," she whispered gently, "I've already spoken to Batman and Superman."

Their names were being used a lot, but she still didn't know the weight of those names. "Robin," she greeted, "Contacted them, saying that he found you. At first, Batman and Superman thought Ted forced him to say those things, that you weren't crazy or homicidal, but then I met them and I took them to the Design room myself. I parted with them to find _you_ Teddy."

"...So what does that mean now?"

"Come on you two," she said, both of them turning around as Dr. Hallo ushered them forward, "Its time to go outside."

"What does that mean?"

Ted had never been outside. She had never seen any pictures of the outside. She had never seen or read or even caught hint of a whole _other world_ that sat innocently above her head. A warm hand on her should. Ted whipped her head up to the grown woman. Her lips were curved in such a beautiful smile. Ted had never seen it before.

It was almost to much for her to handle.

"It means it's time to go home now."

"..._home?_" What did that mean? She _was_ home. _This_ was her home. Her birthplace. The place she was raised in. What did-

"You're not going to live here anymore Teddy. I already have permission for you to live with me outside of this place."

It was scary. To say the least, about moving from one world and to be thrown into another. And it was a relief. Ted didn't need to be poked and prodded by a strangers hands, didn't need to mourn for a family she didn't have, and most of all she didn't need to live up to something she didn't fully understand.

Dr. Hallo led them a ways from Manners fallen body. Hallo said he, along with the other nurses involved, would be put into jail and tried for the wrongs they have committed. In a white hallway, there was a set of doors, not found anywhere else in the base. They opened, parting from the middle and inside was a small tiled room. Barely large enough for five people. "What is..."

"Elevator." Robin said, "Brings people up and down without taking stair-wells." Ted didn't want to ask what a 'stair-well' was.

Hallo and Robin stepped inside, Ted was hesitant but a few encouraging motions from Hallo and Robin had Ted step inside. The doors slide close without pause. There was _ding...ding_ sound from the speakers every time they passed a number. The room would suddenly feel... pressured. Like an invisible hand was pressing down on their heads. Ted almost felt like vomiting, but found it strange that Robin and Hallo looked absolutely fine. The ride _up_ felt like it had lasted forever.

Then forever ended, and the doors opened into a place were Ted had never seen before. Green eyes met what was called colors for the first time. The carpet under her feet was soft, so much better than the fake hardwood or the linoleum and tile. There were... holes? Holes in the walls, covered with a glass sheet with things on their shelves. Light poured in from behind the glass.

Ted, numb with fascination blindly fallowed Robin and Dr. Hallo. She was transfixed the the strange light from the glass hole, why was it there? What kind of room was on the other side. There were people and voices everywhere around them. Shouting orders, 'cuff them.' some said, start talking, give us all data they said and the barked harshly when something wasn't given to them when asked. The smell was difference. The smell was warm to her nose. Everything felt warm now. There were people that were not wearing the lab coat uniform or nurse uniform. Some were wearing blue pants, and light blue shirts with gold stars on their chests. There were others, dressed not like Robin but similar to what he was wearing.

"Its morning." Robin said, more to himself than anyone else, Ted looked at him with narrowed eyes. It was bright outside.

"Is this... outside?"

Robin suddenly looked down, as if he had forgotten she was there, "What? No, not this isn't the outside. Come on Teddy."

Dr. Hallo stood a ways from them. Talking to a man wearing a black hood with pointed ears and another man with dark hair in a red cape. The man had dark blue and blue eyes like Robin did. Maybe that was Batman? Robin had said Batman was 'something' like a father to him. The red cape looked over towards her and Robin. He said something to Hallo and the man in black, likely to excuse himself because now he was walking over towards them. He was taller than Robin and herself, taller than the man in black and Dr. Hallo.

He was smiling down at them when he arrived within arms distance. Now she could see the little curl of hair over his forehead. Robin was smiling back at him and Ted could only feel the helplessness of not knowing what to do with herself. "Robin," he greeted, "Nice to see you're in once piece."

"Thats always good news."

Ted tongue felt dry. What did that mean? Did he expect Ted to literally tear him apart?What did that mean? What did that mean?

She was suddenly aware of a hand stretched toward her. She hesitantly took it into her own, his hand was very warm. Soft, softer then Robins hand. Ted also saw the sheer contrast between their skin colors. His was darker, much darker, she looked like a piece of paper in his hand. She let go almost instantly. However, this did not deter the man with the red cape.

"..." Ted had to swallow a lump she didn't remember having, "Are you Batman?" she had her eyes downcast, not wanting to know _what else_ she had gotten wrong. Robin had snorted, and Ted felt ashamed. "No, I'm Superman. Batman is over there. Wearing the black cowl." She didn't want to ask what a cowl was.

She simply assumed is was the man with the pointy ears still peaking with Dr. Hallo.

"Everything will be alright Ted." Superman gently put, "You're going to be living with Dr. Hallo after we get everything straightened out here. She owns a house not far from Metropolis."

"... Metropolis?"

"Thats my city." he chuckled down at her.

He owned Metropolis? Maybe he did, maybe this was another expression she wasn't familiar with. Robin tugged her hand away from Superman. "Alright, come on Ted, I think its finally time for you to go outside."

"I'll come with you."

Robin didn't say anything, and Ted found she couldn't say anything to defect Superman's decision anyway. She was more engulfed with the hand holding hers. It was warm, even through his gloves but it was something Ted didn't do very much. She can remember the physical therapy to gain feeling back into her legs. She had to hold hands of a faceless nurse to stay upright, step forward again and again. The cold floor, the hard surfaces, the feeling of knives invading the unstable muscles of her legs were always painful the first few weeks.

This was entirely different.

Ted was lead to another door, only this one was already propped open. Men and women were coming out and in. Whichever which was which, was she out? Or was she in?

The brightness had forced Ted to close her eyes.

It was too bright. After spending so much time in the dark of the underground, she couldn't open her eyes. She tried to open them, for a second, only to look at her feet in... green... things. Were those outside plants? Her own green eyes teared up from the intensity. She had to force them shut. "Ted?" That was Superman's voice. "Are you alright?"

There was a shuffle, "Oh thats right. She's never been outside. Hold on," There were a few more seconds of tense silence, Robin moved her hands from rubbing her eyes and something was balanced on her nose and ears. "These should help you until you get used to the sun. You can open your eyes now."

Ted was hesitant, but when she did, she found herself wearing glasses. Like the ones Dr. Hallo wore all of the time. Everything around her, through the darkened lens, now had a shade of brown over them. Blocking light, instead of seeing the light as she wanted to see it. She was finally outside, but yet she couldn't see the world as everyone else did.

_We will see it soon enough_. Voice had injected her say.

Things around her, or rather the lack of things surrounding her, seemed to go on forever. The plants under her feet was everywhere, growing a brilliant green and seemed to move like liquid. From the rim of her glasses, the outside had a light blue roof, if it was a roof. There were brown-white puffs floating over their heads. She wondered what they were. The air tasted... not as the sanitized chemicals she was used to.

She looked down at herself, her socks, she could see stains on them. So she began to look over herself more. Finding more and more stains from her sweat. She couldn't get to her clothes, they were in the housing compound of the base, and she was the smallest in the compound. So her white was now a light cream. She was dirty but she found she didn't mind right now.

"...I'm tired."

She gently put herself onto her knees, and then shifted to lay on her side. This is nice, she thought to herself, Robin did the same thing, Superman stayed on his feet, this is very nice.

_Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!_

Voice was singing this phrase again and again. Ted was suddenly thankful for the glasses Robin had given her.

"...Free at last... Free at last..."

* * *

Hallo gave a wary sigh. "I understand your concern Batman, but I really believe that Ted will be happier if she was living with someone she knew. I've known her since she woke up. I want her to live with me."

"I know you want to do the right thing Dr. Hallo, but you told Superman and also the clone that she would be residing with you-"

"And what would you do?" Hallo snapped under her breath, she didn't want Ted to hear this, "Lock her up in Arkham? Place her back underground? Well you listen to me _Batman_. You. Are. Not. Taking. Her. From. Me. If I need to go _lioness_ on the whole JLA _I will_. I consider her my own." Dr. Hallo wasn't backing down. Not even for Batman.

"Ted is currently going through _major_ changes in her life. Realistically she is only four years old if you count her surviving the year in a coma like state. She was caged in a makeshift 'home'. No windows. No television. No books. No sort of real information or evidence of a world outside of the base Ted was aware of. Coming outside, I'm afraid what her reaction will be if she were to be simply thrown into _another_ cage and forced to take drugs."

"Was she taking any sort of medication during her stay?"

"... At one time, she was. Dr. Stein wanted to know how her body would react since she made up of a total of 12 donors." Dr. Hallo couldn't stop herself from saying 'donors', it was simply drilled into her head. "Ted was in the hospital wing, so drugged up she couldn't move. She fell out of her bed, she would have drowned in her own spit if I hadn't come to visit her."

Hallo remembered that day. She would never forget. Ted had a bad reaction to one of the drugs. No one but Dr. Stein could see her. Dr. Hallo begged to see Ted, and when she was finally given permission to see the little girl, Ted and the bed had been flipped to the side. Hallo thought Ted was dead, she was laying on her back. Eyes glossy, and breathing was raged. Hallo remembered screaming for help.

"Ted needs to be fed into the outside world as gently as possibility. Its possible she might go through a culture shock and might end up mentally impaired to live on her own when she becomes old enough. Believe it or not Batman, even though she knows _how_ she was made, she's still innocent to everything else in this world."

Batman glanced behind Dr. Hallo. Ted, Superman, and Robin were laying the sun. She was laying on her hip, leaning most of her weight to the left, away from Robin and more closer to Superman. Ted was very pale, she had gotten no direct sunlight in years, and in result Batman had to speak with possible medical complications she might be subjected to. No sunlight, Ted then missed out on certain vitamins. Batman also questioned her mental state of mind. Being caged up would do a lot of damage to a person.

"...Are you the one who gave her the computer?"

Hallo blinked at him once, but nodded. "Yes, I had some serious trouble convincing Stein to give her one. I had to say it might induce a cellular memory attack. One of the donors had been a real computer expert for her age." She turned towards the young woman with the light brown hair and green eyes.

"Is that what the project was about? The theory of Cellular memory?"

Hallo didn't turn away from the girl in her sights. "Dr. Stein was a mad man." she sighed, "He was always watching Teddy, always calling her his 'daughter'. He was always talking about Teddy, how 'proud' he was to know that the experiment was a success. Teddy wasn't made for any kind of purpose. She wasn't supposed to prove some weird theory."

"Dr. Stein would always think that there was nothing wrong with Teddy." Hallo continued, "And so he thought, thats the problem. He didn't make any real profit from Teddy, only the information that came from the process of bring separate being together into one single body. Teds' brain is composed of all 12 donors. Stein deliberately placed a section of what makes a human, into another human. There are two people living in that body. The other 11 live on through memory. Thats the origin of the 'Voice' Ted hears. It's been so long, even I've forgotten her name."

"Then what was the purpose of this whole operation? If it wasn't for money or scientific advancement, then what?"

"Ted wasn't made for any purpose. The 'purpose' of The Enigma Design, is in its name. Ted has no real purpose, Ted's only real value to the scientific community is the fact she survived this long after the procedure."

Hallo took a breath, recalling the same conversation she had with Dr. Stein months beforehand. The Dark Knight stepped up beside her. Watching as more nurses and doctors were sat into police cars and trucks to wait for trial.

"Dr. Stein did this only to see what would happen."

* * *

_IN THE END the Justice League did not apprehend Dr. Stein._ He had escaped after contacting the JL and had taken a few files from the computer as well. Ted was given permission to live with Dr. Hallo under the notions of her being more able to adapt to the outside world if she were in familiar hands and Ted wouldn't go through the stress of meeting more doctors in the white uniform. Dr. Hallo was given custody of Ted in return for all information she could give about the events in the compound. Ted had been asked if she would like to change her name, and Ted had refused the offer. _If I were to forger my name, I would forget where I came from. I would forget the people that make up my whole being._ Batman and Superman respected her wishes.

They did not press the issue further from there.

Hall was the give monthly reports on Teds' development. Her behavior in an open environment to see if she was safe to explore the world around her without bringing harm to herself or others. She would have to be home schooled until Dr. Hallo gave a professional report stating that Ted was ready for social interaction. Until then, Ted would remain with at least one other person while in the care of Hallo.

Hallo's home was closer to Gotham than it was to Metropolis. In a four bedroom, two both house on Love Ville Road.

The first day Ted had arrived, she had been surprised people didn't wear the white coats, or the uniforms of the Justice League.

On the second day Ted as arrived, Ted had a full wardrobe in her own room fitted to what _she_ liked. They had been ordered off websites on the Internet. Ted was hesitant to try them on. She had never seen certain clothes before.

On the third day she had arrived, Ted was asking questions, 'why are those people together? A meeting?' Ted couldn't seem the grasp why groups of people came together for no particular reason other then enjoying each others company.

The first report sent to the JLA was not as good as they thought it would be. Ted couldn't understand why people would walk together, couldn't understand why they held hands or why they laughed at the most immature things. She wouldn't be ready so a real social life yet. It would be a while before that could happen.


	2. Chapter 2

The following is a response from eBay with regard to a seller's attempt to auction his soul online in 2001.

_Thank you for taking the time to write eBay with your concerns._

_I'm happy to help you further._

_If the soul does not exist, eBay could not allow the auctioning of the soul because there would be nothing to sell. However, if the soul does exist, then in accordance with eBay's policy on human parts and remains would not allow the auctioning of human souls. The soul would be considered human remains; and although it is not specifically stated on the policy page, human souls are still not allowed to be listed on eBay. Your auction was removed appropriately and will not be reinstated. Please do not relist this item with us in the future._

_You may review our policy at the fallowing link: http:/ pages. ebay. com/help/policies/remains. html. _

_It was my pleasure to assist you. Thank you for choosing eBay._

_

* * *

_

_TWO YEARS IN THE CARE OF DR. HALLO, it was in her professional opinion of hallo that ted was ready for social interaction in a public school._ Hallo had to personally explain to the Justice League that it was a medicine that kept Ted from going into a 'memory lap' as she placed it. The drug was not released to anyone else on the planet, because it was created in the same compound where Ted was born and thus was only meant for her. Hallo had requested items taken from the Design lab, a box marked 'LIFE' and inside was a three year supply of little pink tablets in white unmarked bottles.

Ted sat outside of the conference hall, a long hallway with a red carpet and books lining the walls. There were people inside, heroes and their younger partners walking around as others with cameras flashed through the ceiling windows.

Ted hadn't worn hospital issued clothing in two years. She had many outfits she and Dr. Hallo ordered and even shoes. Her hair was cut shorter now, it once would grace her shoulders, but was now cut at the nape of her neck, Hallo said it was tomboyish. She thought it suited her. Her short brown hair was framing her face, 'bunny-bangs' Hallo had said, they curled towards her lips. She spent time outside, as much as she could stand, but found that her time was limited due to the sun. Ted had found out the hard way she would get sunburn in less than fifteen minutes if she wasn't wearing protection. Pale, but no longer white. Today, Ted had decided on a long sleeved shirt, red but with flower prints in gold, white, and black. Black straight leg jeans that were tucked into high heeled boots that reached a few inches above her ankle. She sat straight up, as she was taught was polite.

Dr. Hallo had told her to bring something to occupy herself, so Ted had managed her find her newest graphic novel, V for Vendetta. She had bought it with another stack of books but she just hadn't had time to read it because of her other studies. The hall was long, but she sat by herself at a small love seat with a black table at her feet.

"...Hey, who is that?"

****

**

* * *

**

"Dr. Hallo, I understand that you want Ted to have as normal life as humanly possible but I think it's still too early for her to be in a public school system. She thought Superman was Batman, and didn't know a flower from a tree when we first met with her. Two years is too short a time to absorb and process too much information to think she's ready for social interaction and _high school_."

Wonder Woman had not been as kind as Hallo had thought she would be. The dark hair woman sat around the table with a council consisting of (from left to right) Wonder Woman, Hawk Girl, Green Arrow, Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Flash, and finally the Martian Manhunter. Flash had snorted but a quick glance from Batman had him covering his laugh with a fake cough. Hallo's fight to get Ted in public school did not look good.

"Yes, I know it may seem strange to engage Ted into the public so early but she has been learning about cultures and public behaviors since day one out of the compound. She studies constantly, sometimes I need to remind her to eat and sleep. She forgets sometimes."

"She forgets to _eat_?"

"Yes. Which doesn't actually surprise. One of her donors had been Attention Deficient. It's common for them to forget to eat a meal when they are deeply involved in something. She is healthier; we've bi-monthly visits to the infirmary, blue tabbed documents, that show improvement in weight, skin tone, and muscle mass and such. Blood work shows she doesn't have any diseases, her bones are stronger than ever, and she only needs glasses when she's reading."

Batman must have been the only person who was actually looking over the data. Flash opened the orange tabbed folder. "What about her behavioral analysis?"

"Pink tab."

"As you read that, please keep in mind that Ted has _multiple_ donors. Therefore she picks up their habits and pet-peeves."

"...Hold on," Aquaman motioned down to the paper for Flash to read, "'patient shows high levels of anxiety, often complains about headaches... Patient is believed to be a victim of _aggressive sexual advances_.'? Explain this one to me doc." The Flash, along with _all_ members of the board was now wearing a deep frown.

Perhaps only Wonder Woman held a look of sympathy.

* * *

There was boy her 'age', she might have looked 16-17, but she was only five years old. Still, he was wearing gold goggles, a yellow and red suit with wild red hair. From what she had seen on the television, his hero name was Kid Flash. From behind her glasses, she made it seem like she hadn't heard him. That he was out of earshot from her. Beside him was another male, taller, whom she saw was Speedy. Speedy shrugged his shoulders, a dismissive gesture. Ted decided to return to her book. Perhaps she would be better off not talking to them.

"...How come she got here first?"

Kid Flash looked up at Speedy, who stood with his arms crossed over his chest. Defensive, Ted thought, that pose is a defensive posture that should not be bothered. "Like I care."

Ted missed the flash of color, and there was a sudden shift of weight on the love seat next to her. Startled, it was enough for her to let go of her book and she had turned quickly to her side. There sat the Kid Flash, teal clashed with green for a moment. Kid Flash was smiling, but Ted didn't know what to say. What did one say to a hero?

"...Hello..." she said meekly, unsure of what to do. This was sudden, and she couldn't make her brain function enough to say something polite. She had seen these young heroes on the television when she felt it was time to rest. Speedy worked with Green Arrow, Kid Flash worked with Flash and the last male was Aqualad. She had seen him in the oceans one day during TV, he and Aquaman were thwarting a ship of pirates who held innocents for ransom after boarding their ship. She was unsure what to say now.

Kid Flash was still smiling, and he must have caught onto her uneasiness.

"Hey there," he greeted, he turned his head to an angle that looked like it hurt as he fidgeted in his spot on the loveseat, "How did you get here before we did? Are you a hero? What's your name? Are you a newbie?"

"…" she had a second to think before the stale air was invaded by Aqualad, "Kid Flash, maybe you should bombard the young lady with questions _before_ you ask her name."

"It's a wonder why you're still single." Speedy laughed at his own joke, and Ted wasn't sure why it was funny. Walking through malls and streets with Hallo, she would overhear how girls wanted to die to get a date with the young heroes.

Aqualad had a kind air around him, much different from Speedy who seemed to have woken on the wrong side of his bed this morning. The white lens of his mask was narrowed, indicating either deep thought or he was angry. From his tone of voice, Ted decided he was angry. Ted turned momentarily to retrieve her book from the floor, only to find it was gone. Turning again, Kid Flash had it in his hands sifting through the black and white pages.

"I saw the movie for this, but I've never read the comic." He murmured more to himself, then lifting his eye lids to beam to her, "So what is your name?"

"I'm Ted Hallo…" it was only fitting that she would take Hallo's last name since she had adopted Ted as her own. She could feel the burn of a blush over her nose and cheeks, "It's nice to meet you. Kid Flash, right?" People on the TV were always calling him by some other name.

"Yes!" he shouted in what was joy, her book in his lap and his fists pumped into the air, "Finally someone remembers my name!" Aqualad took a seat in the cushioned chair to the left of the loveseat, closer to Kid Flash than Ted. He leaned back into the chair with a sigh, "If you don't mind me asking Ted, what _are_ you doing here? This place is for members of the Justice League only."

She gave a moment to think. What should she tell them? "Business I guess. My caretaker is speaking with the league on my behalf at the moment." Vague, but Dr. Hallo had warned her beforehand _not_ to tell people why she was really here. _To ask permission o the Justice league to attend a public school._ This was not something that would be told to others because of the confusion it would cause. So it would just be easier not to tell them. Ted, however, didn't want to lie. She found lying stressful.

Dr. Hallo was out one day. During the time, Ted was cleaning and she had dropped a red glass tea cup. Dr. Hallo's favorite tea cup. In vain, she tried to hot-glue the pieces back together with ended with glass splinters and cuts all over her hands and fingers. Hallo asked where it was and Ted told her, in fear of harsh treatment (being forcefully removed from the house and into the care of the Justice League was her main fear during the first few weeks with Dr. Hallo) that loomed over her head like a wicked cloud, said she didn't know where it was. A week later and Ted presented the shard-cup, with bandaged and trembling hands, her throat was shaking and her tongue just didn't want to form coherent sounds. She felt like she was going to vomit. Hallo forgave Ted. Placing the shard-cup on the top shelf of her living room bookcase.

Speedy didn't seem to forgiving as Hallo was that day. He seemed to have ignored her almost entirely. He was peering around the room, "Where's Robin? Isn't he supposed to be here by now?"

Ted looked up at the name of _Robin_.

"Yeah, he was supposed to be. Wonder if he slept in, he works with the Batman."

Ted hadn't seen Robin since four days after her liberation. Four days of staying in a 'safe house' while a debate went on, whom should Ted live with? Who is best suited for Ted's mental and physical development? Who had the resources? Did she have any abilities? So many questions during those days and Ted was still in shock of the new world around her. Ted just didn't want to stay inside. She would go outside, where there were trees and bushes and sights and smells that Ted would have _never_ encountered in the home base. Robin had volunteered to be a 'baby-sitter' (Ted asked what a baby was and had gotten strange looks from many people) during those four days because Ted had never been by herself for so long. In the home base, she was required regular checkups and medical procedures. Ted was given some loose fitting clothing until she would get her own. Cut jean shorts, uncomfortable sandals that she never wore, and some printed shirts. One of them was gray, and had the red word LOVE on the side. She still had it in fact, asking Batman if she could keep it.

"Didn't sleep in," a voice boasted from the entrance, "Got bored and got a coffee."

Walking in uniform with a Styrofoam cup of the said drink was Robin, but he wasn't wearing the same uniform Ted remembered. His was green and red; he was wearing red and black now. He was still wearing that mask, and his hair was shorter but a lot could happen in two years.

"Robin!" Kid Flash waved in his excitement, he still hadn't returned her book. "Great to see you buddy! My pal! My BFF-OMG-LOL!" Ted was somewhat familiar with text speak. "Ted," he said her name suddenly, "Have you met Robin? Robin, Ted. Ted, Robin." Kid Flash was suddenly in her lap, was lying down on the couch, his head in her lap and his arms stretched to her side of the loveseat. "Maybe we can go out later? Over coffee?"

'Go out', Ted had learned this had multiple meanings. _Go Out_ as friends or _Go Out_ as boy-friend/girl-friends. She found it impossible to know what he meant. Hallo had told her to say no to any requests for a date. She had said it was simply too early for her to try a relationship with others. Maybe he meant as friends? Perhaps it wouldn't harm anything if she did.

She didn't fight the urge to smile down at the red head in her lap. "That sounds nice."

Robin had stopped and placed himself between Speedy and Ted. "You look better." The masked boy stated down at her, did that mean she was ugly the last time she saw him? "Glad to see you're doing better."

"Dr. Hallo takes care of me."

Kid Flash was squinting his green eyes, "You two… _know_ each other?"

"We have a brief history." Vague, but not a lie. Even Speedy was looking at them strangely. Was this a bad thing? Was knowing a hero a bad thing? She hoped not.

"Teddy?"

Dr. Hallo was looking over from back of the loveseat, finding Robin leaning over her and Kid flash leaning _on_ her seemed to be a strange scene. Her hair was tied back now, but a few golden rebel strands escaped the bands hold. She made a quick greeting to Robin. "Teddy, it's time to go."

"Alright."

Ted shifted to stand up straight, walking away to catch up with Dr. Hallo who seemed to want to leave in a rush, she turned at the hip, waving and said out loud, "Goodbye everyone." And her heels clicking through the automatic doors and sealing behind her and finally locking.

* * *

"Aw," Kid Flash pouted, "She forgot her book."

"Well you have a reason to see her again."

Robin seemed more dismissive Aqualad noted, he sipped his coffee as he waited for the Justice League to pass through the door. Robin was simply sipping his coffee until he had to tip his head back, and the cup was finally empty. Thrown into the nearby waste bin, Robin dropped himself into the seat were Ted was once sitting.

"So what's your story with that Ted girl?" Kid Flash broke the silence. "Come one, was she a past _lover_ perhaps?"

Kid Flash could see the young woman now. Wearing a tight hero uniform. Black maybe, even gray and red. Her hair wild, wearing high heels and a perhaps she wore a buster. She would be standing in the night of the moon. Her pale skin almost casting a soft glow. Facing Robin, her chest close to his. Kid Flash wondered how expressive she would be. Did she get angry? When a villain was gaining the upper hand? He found her having a look of determination rather than anger. It made him want to see that look.

"Nah," Robin sighed, "Met her on a mission. She's a good girl."

Robin didn't want to say anymore about the small female. His mind went back to when they had first met. Down in the home base, she was supposed to be mentally insane, hearing voices and biting people like an animal. A person made not out of love, but out of murderers and the murdered. She had learned the concepts of life and death during those few days holed up in the home base, but outside in the world, Robin had learned the hard way she was more innocent than she had let on.

On the first day in the safe house, Batman had basically put him in babysitting duty whether he liked it or not (which he didn't, he had a life to outside of the Robin uniform) and Teddy was left the house. Into the thick woods that surrounded the house. For hours, he searched under root and brush, and finally found Ted leaning on the knees into a shallow river, playing the water that was thick with life and creatures he had to name for her. Hands feeling the texture of grained sand and the slime of fish scales when they bounced off her hands.

He couldn't find it in himself to scold her.

"Oh ok," Kid Flash nodded, a grin still on his face, "So she's available?"

If Dr. Hallo and the Justice League allowed it. "Maybe." Was all Robin could respond without hinting that anything was wrong.

"I can't believe she has a guy's name." Speedy huffed.

"You'd be surprised what her name meant."

* * *

_DR. HALLO HADN'T SAID ANYTHING during the walk back to their little hotel room._ The taller blond beauty was in deep thought perhaps, because she was walking slower now, and her eyes were half lidded and this was recognized as her thinking face. The shorter girl with green eyes had taken off her glasses, not wanting to tell Hallo she had forgotten her book in fear of angering the blond. Making Hallo at ease with Ted was worth more than a book.

"…Teddy," Hallo sighed suddenly, snapping Ted out of her thoughts, "Why was Kid Flash leaning on you? Did you feel… comfortable with him? With all those boys alone?"

Ted looked front ways, was something wrong? Ted knew she wasn't supposed to be talking to others about certain things, and Dr. Hallo almost never left her on her own outside of their home. Maybe she was supposed to be silent, ignore Kid Flash and Robin. Maybe she wasn't supposed to be there at all. Ted didn't know, but she felt it was worth it to see Robin again. It was nice knowing he was killed in action yet.

"I felt fine Dr. Hallo," Ted put on a smile for the doctor, "I don't think I did something wrong… Was something wrong? Was I not allowed to talk to them?"

"No-no," Hallo said to stop Ted's rambling, "Its fine to talk to others. There's nothing wrong with that. What I meant was you didn't feel anything memory-wise?"

"I took my meds this morning," Ted stepped onto the cross walk, "I didn't have a memory. Was I supposed to?"

"No Teddy," Hallo was smiling again, "In fact this is great."

Ted didn't question why. Only moved forward.

* * *

A week had gone by, and Ted was once again in her home with Dr. Hallo downstairs preparing a small dinner for Ted. Hallo had been called in by the Justice League for something that deem first priority and called in Dr. Hallo's services.

Though Dr. Hallo was main a therapist, she was also trained as a surgeon. Medical trainer and she had even been in the army as a field medic in her early years. Ted could only hope that nothing was severely wrong and it was just a mistake. Without Hallo, the house felt like a vacuum. No life. Not even Ted.

"I'm only going to be gone for the night. I'll be back before you even wake up."

"But why can't I come with you?"

Dr. Hallo wanted Ted to have a career in her later life, and had been training Ted as a medic on the field with dummies from her own training days. A year ago Ted had began, and now a year later she was as good as Dr. Hallo herself. Draining information from the internet, the mountains of medical books and pages like a sponge. Hallo had recorded the amount of information Ted had taken in. Sending it to the JLA to show her astounding academic abilities. Two donors had IQ's over 240, but because Ted had been hidden in the dark, this was not apparent in the home base and being socially stunted wasn't a helpful factor either.

"Justice League business I guess." Hallo sighed, hating the kicked puppy look Ted was wearing, she was perfect for the kicked puppy act. "I know, but I promise to come back."

Abandonment. Desertion. Rejection.

Ted was afraid that one day, everyone would be tired of the girl made from a pack of murderers and their victims. She once had a nightmare, all the members of the Justice League (that she knew of) stood and watched. Twelve girls, disfigured and butchered, same back and _took what was theirs_ and left nothing but a small puddle of blood. Ted refused to sleep for a few days, before Hallo had convinced her to take sleeping medication for the nightmares.

Dr. Hallo sighed in defeat, "Alright Teddy, you can come with me." And was gifted with a rare big smile Ted only wore for such happy occasions. Ted adored meeting new people, going outside with Dr. Hallo to explain things that text could not. A book could say a person would react to this because of that, but Dr. Hallo could explain _why_ this person reacted and how this _other_ person reacted differently.

"We're going back to the Justice Hall," Hallo wrapped up a sandwich and Ted's grilled ham and cheese, "There's been a strange development, and I've been asked to be a host to a special guest for a few days."

"…" Host? "… Like Robin was before I came here?"

Dr. Hallo nodded. "Yes."

A _strange development_, Ted had been called that by members of the police that kept her case out of the eye of the public. Deem it to 'gruel' for the papers and stated that there was some 'substance abuse' in the compound that really didn't catch the eye of many.

Maybe Ted wasn't the only Design after all. She had someone. Someone just for her.

__

_

* * *

_

_THE SUPERBOY WAS A CLONE __made from stolen DNA from the Superman. _He was taller than Robin, more muscle than Robin, but he had dark hair like Robin. Superboy didn't have Superman's eyes, because his eyes were his own. Hallo forced Ted to wait in the sitting area once again, Ted wasn't permitted past the second set of doors like Hallo or Robin or Batman or Superman. What happened back there was a mystery to her. She greeted Batman, but had only gotten silence in return, making Ted shrink in her seat from one of her liberators. Was she that horrible? That the person that freed her, wouldn't talk to her?

Robin had said hello, but was rushed through the doors to treat some broken ribs and cuts. Kid Flash with him.

And so Ted was alone again.

Alone.

Hallo had emerged from the doors with a boy behind her, fallowing as if he was wearing a leash. He had on a pair of jeans and a black shirt with the red superman emblem. Ted was nearly asleep when she was jolted awake by Hallo stepping up out into the open. Hallo had been leaving Ted on her own a lot lately.

"Teddy, we're going home."

"Alright."

Ted was to side to ask other questions. So many were running through her mind like a pack of ravaging wolves. Who are you? What is your name? Are you a fellow Enigma Design? What parts of Superman do you have? Is Superman still alive?

But they would be in silence for now.

Superboy had a duffel bag over his shoulder. He looked stern, hard as steel and stone must have had more yield with expression. Ted fallowed Hallo at Superboy's side, refusing to give up her place beside the blond woman. She would not be replaced.

Arriving to the house had only taken an hours' drive. One of which Ted had fallen asleep for behind the passenger seat, Superboy had called 'shotgun' for some reason and took the seat. Ted didn't really think about the matter, she had never stayed up this late before.

Ted had gone straight to her bedroom after telling Hallo and Superboy a shy goodnight and sleep tight.

Waking up the next morning, and it was past noon. Ted had fallen asleep around four in the morning, but Ted never slept for very long. In her pajamas, a nightgown of a huge red button up shirt and some ankle socks she yawned on the stairs and went about her normal morning routine. Hallo was always a morning person, smiling, but Ted simply couldn't understand anything first thing in the morning. Her body was awake, but her brain was still fuzzy from sleeping in the stress melting heat.

"How come Supey' gets to live with Ted? I haven't even been on our date yet."

"The bat-caves crowed enough. We didn't have room and Batman said so."

"K-F, please go easy on the jelly."

There were voices from the kitchen, male voices that were familiar but their names were buried in her minds slowness to wake up. Some coffee would fix that. She made her way into the eating area as she always did the warm air from the heater felt nice on bare skin. In the dining room which was attached to the kitchen was a long oak table with cushioned arm chairs. Ten chairs, four on each side and then one at each head of the table. Dr. Hallo normally sat at one of the head chairs.

Four boys were sitting in a square of each other. Two on each side. Superboy sat next to Kid Flash. Robin was sitting next to Aqualad. Between them were plates of eggs (both scrambled and 'sunny-side), bacon, sausage, light toast, a pitcher of orange juice and milk, and other condiments like jelly, butter and such things. The smell of French toast wafted through the doors, and Ted could feel her mouth water. French toast, as she discovered, were best eaten right out of the pan when it was still steaming and sat in a lake of syrup and butter. Sometimes, Hallo would allow Ted to use the whipped cream on top with some strawberries or blueberries.

Stepping through the door she had to stop and stare. Did people always eat this much? It seemed like Kid Flash was a literal vacuum that gobbled up everything he lay sight upon. She could barely eat two _whole_ pieces of French toast at a time. He was the first to see the young woman, he was beaming at her. "Ted!" he almost shouted, "Great you're up! Breakfast is ready!"

She didn't remember telling them where she lived. Nor did she remember inviting them for breakfast or maybe they spent the night? It didn't matter right now. "G-good morning…" Her bumbled reply had raised some eye brows, and she couldn't fight the yawn that forced its way out. "Sorry, I'm still trying to wake up…"

"There's coffee made."

"Wonderful."

She shuffled into the kitchen, she opened the first cabinet above the toaster, and gripped a glass coffee mug and closed the cabinet up. She turned on heel with her cup, and nearly felt like having a panic attack when Superboy was standing behind her. He was _taller_ than Robin. Not to mention he didn't seem all that happy. "Sorry," he said, using his height advantage to open the cabinet behind her, "I wanted some coffee too." He took out what she recognized as the coffee mug Hallo had bought for her. A simple light blue mug that always made the coffee taste better.

"That's not a problem." She said.

She side stepped to get behind him. To where the coffee pot was. She set her mug down, and grasped the black non-slip handle, and gently took it out of machines embrace. Pouring coffee was hard the first few times, she had never seen coffee being made before going outside. Maids had always brought her coffee with cream and sugar (neither of which she knew existed until asking why the coffee in the pot wasn't the same taste or color as the coffee the maids made) and then she had to learn that coffee was _hot_ and should not be _gulped down_ before allowing it to cool with the cream and the morning air. The morning would never be forgotten. Her tongue was 'burned' and she found that everything felt different in her mouth.

She also had to learn how much coffee to put in her mug and how much cream so it wouldn't overflow.

She filled it halfway, and she was presented with Superboy's cup next to hers. She blinked for a second before filling his up halfway as well. She set the pot back and Superboys' cup was next to her own. She paid no mind to it. Taking out the sugar jar and spooning a few full spoons of sugar into her cup, she was about to put some into Superboys' cup but wondered if he liked his sweet. It would be better to ask rather than to assume.

"Superboy," he was taking out the creamer, "Do you take sugar?"

"Two spoonfuls please."

She did, two spoons was only half of what she took. She like d her coffee sweet. She tried it black, and it was a bitter taste she couldn't stand. Ted put the sugar away, as Superboy was putting the creamer back into the fridge. Glancing down, she found that both cups had creamer, and both cups had been stirred. Superboy was silent when he took his cup away and amble back to the group. She took her coffee into her hands. Feeling its warmth, and thought about what just transpired.

Superboy seemed nice, but he hadn't said very much to her and he didn't say 'good morning' and he didn't attempt to try and strike up conversation. Maybe he didn't want to be her friend. Maybe he was just shy.

"Teddy?"

Hallo was holding out a plate of French toast, three pieces and a side of strawberries. Had she watched what happened? More than likely, she was always there when people were over. But then people came over to Hallo's home they were normally doctors from the Justice League for her monthly checkup. She had to be present.

Hallo had a smile, she looked like she was about to laugh, "Why aren't you wearing pants?

* * *

Ted ate breakfast at the counter rather than the table with the boys. She felt as if she did, she would be invading and things would be awkward. A light breeze and there was Kid Flash leaning against the counter just as she ate some French toast. "Teddy," he greeted with the pet-name Dr. Hallo used. For some reason, hearing it come from his mouth stirred something she didn't like, but she let it go. "I didn't think I'd get to see you so soon! I brought your book back. You left it at the Hall."

Book? Oh, that's right. She had forgotten it in the hasty exit Hallo had taken. "Oh, thank you Kid Flash." She was nearly done her breakfast; she only had a few bites left.

"Are you going out with us? We're going to the shopping to get Superboy some clothes."

Superboy needed clothes? Ted needed them too after she left the Home Base. "Do you know Superboy's real name yet? No one knows and I think Robin just doesn't want to tell everyone yet."

Real name?

Ted wanted to ask the same thing. Over time, she had learned that the names 'Superman or Batman' were not the men's true names. Not their birth names. They were names given to them by the public as their hero persona's. So loved ones weren't in danger due to their connection to the heroes.

She often wondered what Robin's real name was. But those thoughts were almost instantly banished from her mind.

"If it's a secret, then keep it a secret."

Kid Flash pouted, "But I _hate_ keeping secrets…" He leaned his upper body onto the counter, "I'm Bart." He suddenly grinned from his placed against the counter. "Bart Allen."

Ted glanced down and took another bite, something to keep her mouth from talking.

"What's your name?"

It took Ted a moment to process the question. She already told him her name; did he just want her to introduce herself again? "… Ted Hallo…" Hesitant to answer, yes, but answered truthfully none the less. However, her answer didn't seem to be the one he was looking for because he frowned and stood straight on his feet.

"Not your hero name. Your _real name_. I told you mine." His head was tilted now, his fists on his hips.

She put down her fork, not liking where this was potentially going to. Kid Flash, Bart, thought she didn't trust him? From the look of his posture he didn't. If he didn't then he would stop talking to her, and her first attempt to a real friend (Hallo was like a 'mother' figure rather a friend) would be shot down in flames.

"Ted Hallo _is_ my real name. You can ask Dr. Hallo is you want to."

Then Bart dropped his arms, looking at her in a strange manner she had seen on comedy shows. Disbelief, eyes wide, mouth straight but his cheeks were pinker than normal. He was slightly bent at the waist, as if to get a better look at her plate or just her could be thrown up into the air for anyone to figure out for themselves.

"…Oh." Was his response and his _only_ response before walking away. The awkward air around them remained with both Bart and Ted.

Ted was confused beyond words.

"…Was it something I said?"

* * *

Ted went upstairs to change out of her bed clothes. Her back to the door. Taking off her large shirt she failed to notice that her door had magically opened on its own.

****

**

* * *

**

Going to the shopping center was something Ted enjoyed, she didn't normally buy anything but she came here because there was a nice bookstore near a coffee vendor that sold great lattes. She was almost a regular because of her ability to collect so much information at once. A room in the house had been used as storage, and then reformed into a small library for books Ted was always bringing home. The walk was only ten minutes from the house. Ted decided on some straight legs, her high heeled boots, and a white turtleneck for the light wind chill.

Robin had asked her to take her to a good place for clothes. Batman had given him a gold card, and was told to get whatever it was Superboy would need. Clothes. Shoes. Toiletries. Such things like that. Ted pointed to the store that sat two doors down from the book shop, "I normally go there. They're always having sales and the boys section is larger than the girls. They even have a shoe isle. Over there," she pointed to what looked like a drug store, "you can get stuff like shampoo or toothpaste. I actually want to get into the book store over there, I'm reading a series and I ordered the books."

"What's that place over there?"

Bart pointed over towards a fenced area with had little tables and tall chairs. "That's the café. I've been there for breakfast a few times." She thought about a cake dish she had once. It was wonderful. "They make really good pastries." A 'cupcake' was what they called it. She was given a vanilla one with 'fuzzy' blue icing, 'goggly-eyes' and a small cookie. It was supposed to look like the 'cookie-monster'. "They have cupcakes that look like the cookie monster."

"After clothes, we're going there." Bart stated, as fact rather than a request, "I must have the cupcake."

Superboy rolled his eyes when Ted couldn't stifle the small laugh.

* * *

"…What is _up_ with Ted? You said you had a history with her right Robin?"

"Hmm?"

Aqualad was busy with Superboy, trying to figure out what fit him and then what style best suited him. Superboy seemed to have been verbally abusing him but Aqualad seemed only to be returning the gesture with hand signs. Robin was shifting through a rack of t-shirts. He wore dark sunshades, a red jacket and dark pants. Bart was going through the printed shirts. Picking one that was printed with white letters on black fabric, 'Its Alright' and in a white box with the letters black 'you are beautiful'. Printed shirts were in a unisex wall. A small one, long sleeved and he threw it onto his shoulder.

"I don't mean to be rude to anything, but she's a little…. Off. To put things lightly."

Robin didn't make a sound. He pulled out a red shirt with a few white birds and took out a large size, "She's…" what could he say to justify her? That she was imprisoned her whole life? Who is only five years old? "She wasn't very _social_ before I met her."

He should have said _found her_ but that would only cause more questions. To be found, one must be lost. Ted was more than lost.

"What? Was her parents paranoid or something?"

Murderer. "Something like that."

"What about the mark on her back?"

Robin didn't notice himself flinch. 'Mark on her back', it brought up the memory of Ted in the computer room. She had her back to him, her upper body naked and she was leaning forward as her fingers words furiously to show him the footage of her 'creation'. Crying. She was very pale. As white as the moon and the artificial light only made her look so _thin_, and so _sickly_, he couldn't bare looking at her. How did someone explain that?

You tell little truths.

"…She was abused." And so were the girls she was made from. "Her father wasn't a _nice_ man."

"…So that's why she's living with a doctor?"

"Yea." Also because she _might_ be mentally _deformed_. She was hearing a _voice_ after all. But then Robin remembered the Voice was a part of an actual person that managed to stay _alive_ inside of Ted. Before she was… a divided state. Robin didn't want to tell anything about her origins; it felt wrong just to remember where he found her. Bart wasn't someone to hide things and Robin knew from the day they had met Bart showed interest in Ted. Ted hadn't shown any signs of returning said interest but she played it off cool and like they had been friends for years.

Superboy roared out in his frustration. Picking up a metal shelf and throwing it to Aqualad. "I shouldn't be here!" he shouted, "I should be out saving people! Not shopping!"

* * *

Ted had a wonderful day at the book store. Her order, a series she had found interesting called Leviathan had come in the day before as the lady said. Hard cover books, nearly six inches thick with paper and ink. Ted ordered the first three books, and she had also found some short novels she wanted to read. Her hands were full with an entire stack, almost twenty books in her arms and she thought she could ask Bart or maybe Robin to help her carry them. Outside there was a bustle of activity. Smoke was rising out of the clothing store Robin and his friends had walked into.

However, they weren't there. They weren't at the little cupcake café.

Walking into her last hope, strange enough to be the drug store, she had asked the clerk what had happened.

"Young lady, there was these boys n' they start a big fight." The man had an accent she couldn't place. Dark hair and skin, she had seen similar features in movies that took place out of the country. "Very big fight." He sighed, "Scare all my customers away, but they bring more."

"Did you see where they went by chance?"

"They run down road, that way." He pointed down to where her home would be. They ran past the bookstore and didn't bother stopping inside to collect her.

She thanked the man, buying two of the cheap tote bags to help carry her books from him. "Thank you very much miss." He said, clapped his hands together and bowed lightly at the waist. The walk home had been uneventful, but was none the less colder. Temperature hadn't changed much, and there wasn't so much as a breeze of wind, but it was colder. There were cars that honked past her but it was ignored.

She had stepped on the front porch, the light was on but Dr. Hallo's car was gone. She must have had another meeting with the Justice League. There was a wooden swing on her porch, long enough to fit four people and had a pillow on each end. Lights were on inside the house and she could just barely hear someone, maybe Robin, shouting at another person.

Ted was hesitant to touch the door handle. If Robin was angry, should she go in? Should she interrupt whatever it was going on, would Robin turn his anger on her instead if she did? Ted decided it would be best to wait outside, until the yelling had stopped. Until everything was back to the calm air and until everyone inside had cooled down.

She took a place on the swing. On the table next to her, there was a small radio, and inside there was a disc of music that Dr. Hallo often played when she was doing work outside and when Ted was reading in her hammock that was currently rolled up in the closet of her room. She pressed a button, and music began playing from the public radio. Another button down, and the disc begun to spin inside its little compartment. Flowing through the speakers were not words to a song, but from what Hallo explained to be an instrument. Hallo had explained a few of them playing together to make their sounds beautiful.

Careless Whispers, this song was tilted, Hallo said she lived in the south at one time. Jazz music was very popular and she had grown up with it. She turned the volume up, enough for her to hear it next to her but not the people inside. She just wanted to drown out the alien sounds of people yelling. She had seen such behavior on the television, and it always resulted in someone getting hurt and someone dying. Something explodes and catches fire, that had been the clothing store in this fight.

Ted struggled to read, not because she was still learn vocabulary (Hallo said that was something that would always improve, everyone needs to improve their vocabulary) and the double meanings of words.

_Everything will be alright_.

Voice didn't speak much anymore, not like before. Voice only spoke when Ted was feeling stressed about something, and Ted almost wished she would get stressed out more often. It was nice to know Voice hadn't left (not like she could really) but it was a nice thought that Voice always knew what to say to help Ted in a time of need.

"They're yelling."

_I guess someone did something that was frowned upon._

Ted had learned the meaning of a 'frown' when one of the other doctors asked her a question she didn't comprehend and he had gotten upset about it. He asked her if she knew anything about the disappearance of Dr. Stein. She couldn't understand the point of this question; she hadn't spoken to him since before her liberation. Hallo requested a different doctor; this one was very hard to deal with because he was always so hard on Ted. Asking questions she could never answer, wanting to much when she could only do and know so little. He was always frowning whenever she came around.

_Everything is going to be alright. Don't you worry Ted._

Ted closed her book.

* * *

"Guys…"

"-and then you throw-!"

"Guys."

"-control! Learn it you-!"

"Guys!"

"-could have gotten hurt!"

Bart spun in place. Winds generated from his body created something to a tornado, but only enough to get the others to look at him. Papers escaped from their holds, and a cushion had fallen off the couch. Aqualad had finally ceased his roast of Superboy and now he was looking with dangerous eyes at Bart. "_What?_ K. F." Aqualad was seething, but Robin was nowhere to be seen.

Bart was standing in his street clothes, not as Kid Flash (none of them were in uniform) but as Bart Allen in an orange hooded shirt. His shoes, though brand new, were always worn out already. He was standing in the center of the living room with his hands on his hips.

"Did any of you get Ted from the book store?"

"…"

"…"

None of them did.

"Who cares?" Superboy huffed. "She's more than capable of taking care of herself."

Superboy wanted to pound anything that moved right now. He stood still in spite of getting chewed out by Aqualad. He had been forcibly removed from town, and Robin had forbid him to return. What clothes he would receive he would wear and he had no say in it. Then Robin went into the next room, his bat-com bleating in alarm. "Scared your _girlfriend_ is gonna' run away with someone else?"

"First of all," Bart shifted his weight to lean forward, "Me and Ted aren't together like that. I only met her a few days ago. And second, it's dangerous for a girl to be out and about on her own at night. Don't you know anything kid?"

"She'll be fine." Superboy groaned in frustration, "I want to know _why_ I'm here and not _helping_ Superman! I don't want to be here!"

"You're _here_," Robin shouted over Superboy's voice, "Because if you can't do something as simple as _shopping_, what makes you think you can _save lives_?"

"I didn't _want_ to go _shopping!_" Superboy yelled in retort, "I _want_ to do what I was _made_ for!" He ran his fingers through his hair, nails scratching at his scalp.

"And what you _want_ will get others _killed._"

Superboy had gone silent. All fight had suddenly left his being. Robin was standing, though he was shorter than Superboy he seemed to be more powerful than Superboy. His eyes were on him, through the sunglasses, but Superboy could see facial muscles lined into what was anger.

"What do you think the Justice League, _Superman_, would think if they saw you acting like a child? Huh? They would treat you like one. That's how. You think you're _ready_ to be a hero? You think that just saving people would win the Justice League? It doesn't work that way." Robin turned his tone down, making Superboy feel smaller than he already was. "And then you say 'She can take care of herself'? Just because you think you have some _higher calling_ to save _other_ people? No. You don't want to help one person. You don't want to control yourself. You're not ready to help people."

Bile felt like it was rising up Superboy's throat. The half-kryptonian could feel daggers on his impenetrable skin. Sharp with guilt.

"I don't think you can even help yourself."

And another knife in his chest.

* * *

Ted was swinging, she had laid herself in the swing so her head rested on a pillow and her feet rested on the opposite arm. The CD still playing a song she couldn't recognize and instruments she couldn't name. She lay on the swing, a gently back, forth; motion was more calming than the gentle music from the speakers. Ted had her eyes closed, feeling the motion better with the loss of one of her senses. The feeling of being cradled, and rocked. Ted wondered if this was how an infant felt when being held by their mother.

Then wondered, if Ted asked (she never would, it would seem silly) maybe Dr. Hallo would sit with her one day. The music changed to another song now. Ted cracked open an eye. This song actually had lyrics.

It was voice, her voice in fact.

"~_Heaven, please sing for me a song of life  
__Heaven, take me into your skies  
__There's no place here for me to hide my cries  
__Night and day, I am missing you, ohh_~"

One of Ted's donors had given Ted her voice box, and she had been inspired to take the world by stage. Singing hope, not something about drugs or the hip-hop Ted heard on the public radio. She closed her eyes again, hearing the track should have sent her into a memory lapse. However, the pills Ted was given stopped that from happening.

Ted was almost thankful.

Almost.

"_~I Know I'm here for magic  
__All your stars guiding me through and through  
__Why, this loneliness feels like... forever and ever  
__I gotta be I gotta be in your arms baby~_"

Ted often wondered if she could go back in time, and keep the girls from being kidnapped and take apart only to create her. And then maybe Ted wouldn't be here. Ted wouldn't be alive, she wouldn't have been made out of the murdered that was the twelve subjects she could not name. She dreamed about them sometimes, when she was curled up in her bed and heavy comforter. They would come and stand before her.

"~_you're so close, so close  
__And it's you that I believe in, I believe in  
__So, close, but far away I can't touch  
__I'll hold on.  
__Cuz it's you I love so dearly...  
__When the rain the storm, and all it's done  
__Caress me with your sweet lullaby…~_"

She would dream about them. Or, at least dream from the perspective of one of them. They were cold one night, in the glass cages; they had been placed into one cage to interact with each other. One of them was crying, she was trying to stifle her sobbing but was failing miserably. She was a tiny little creature, marble white skin, snow white hair, and her eyes (had they not been bloodshot) were a loving pink. Her clothes were rumbled, the front of her pants were red stained. The green eyed girl, those hard green eyes, only stood up and walked over to the white creature, and embraced it. Bringing her into a cocoon of her arms and legs. Other girls joined in, and then in another moment warmth was everywhere.

And everything was alright, even for a second. Ted closed her eyes again.

"~_Heaven, please sing for me a song of life  
__Heaven, save me in my dreams tonight  
__Someday these wings will perish in your side  
__Night and day I call for you_~"

She could still feel how warm it was now. The motion of rocking, the phantom heat, it was a wonderful feeling, and Ted almost felt as if she should cry the same tears as did the white creature of her memory-dream.

"…Ted?"

She opened an eye again, finding Robin standing at the door, one foot still in the house. He was giving her a lop-sided smile, one of relief. "Oh thank god, I thought something bad happened."

She closed her eyes again, and drew her legs in to give Robin some room to sit on the swing. "What happened at the shopping center? Was someone attacked?"

She felt the sudden shift, and a foreign heat at her calves, and Robin started a larger swinging motion with his own legs. Ted leaned her knees against him, liking the warmth he permitted.

"…Superboy got upset." Robin explained, "He really wants to go save people."

"…But he's not ready yet, is he?"

"…He's not ready."

"~_Flashes of moments of tragic  
__Wondering souls, they fell along the way  
__Tell me you will never leave me... forever and ever  
__I gotta be, I gotta be, in your arms, hear me_~"

Robin went silent. It almost unnerved Ted, but she had learned that sometimes silence was the best and wisest course of action. Again, heat, rocking, heat, rocking and it was all soothing. Ted was almost compelled to ask for a blanket to sleep outside. Green eyes opened, seeing the graying wood planks above her head.

"Is this… one of your donors? I recognize your voice."

In all respects, her voice didn't belong to her in the first place. Ted always felt a pang of guilt when someone said something was 'hers'. Everything about her was a horrible act of insanity disguised as an act of science.

"…Yes… She had a wonderful voice. She wanted to be a music artist."

"Have you thought about taking up that dream of hers?"

"~_You're so close, so close  
__and its you I believe in I believe in  
__So close but faraway, I seek for your light  
__I'll hold on  
__Cuz for you my hearts keep beating  
__When the wind, the fire and all is gone  
__Caress me with your sweet lullaby_ ~"

Ted had never given thought about going out in the world (because the JLA wouldn't permit it) and living her own life. She liked it here with Dr. Hallo. Hallo really helped Ted when she needed the assistance. Hallo explained why things were the way they were. Explained how to use words in the correct way and what those words meant when they had double meanings. Life here was wonderful.

She wasn't underground.

She could go outside.

Ted didn't have to worry about being bored about of her mind. Books, lessons, and daily walks through the market always had her occupied.

"…No." solemnly said, "I wouldn't be allowed. The Justice League turned down our request to enroll me into a public school system. Hallo said it was because I was too young."

"And how old _are_ you again?"

"I'll be turning six soon."

"Ah."

"~_Will you be my light  
__Will you be my strength  
__Promise you won't let go…  
__I'll never betray  
__And in the end of time  
__Still my love's gonna be there_~"

"…"

Robin didn't respond, how could he? The word of the Justice League was considered law to the younger heroes, and they dared not go against them.

"We're forming a team." Robin suddenly blurted out.

"A new team?"

"Yeah. The day you met Bart and Aqualad, we went behind the JL's backs and went into a burning building. Underneath was a lab."

Ted full attention was given, at the sound of 'lab' she had to control herself from bolting up in her seat and shaking Robin for more information. Instead, she slowly got up, and put her feet to the floor. Sitting at the center of the swing while Robin sat at the end. "What happened?" She was almost ecstatic, was Superboy like her? Then what happened to Superman? Was he still alive?

"We went underground. _Way_ underground. Superboy was a prisoner down there, and we set him free."

"_~you're so close, so close  
__And it's you that I believe in, I believe in  
__So, close, but far away I can't touch  
__I'll hold on.  
__Cuz it's you I love so dearly...  
__When the rain the storm, and all it's done  
__Caress me with your sweet lullaby…~_"

Ted remembered her first moment of freedom. _Free at last, free at last_ was like a mantra in her mind. Voice had screamed it, and Ted cried that day. Because there wasn't a ceiling or a person above her that stopped the sunlight or the wind or the sight of the sky. She often thought back, so she would never forget.

Ted wondered if Superboy had felt the same thing.

The freedom.

The new taste of the air, and how the sunlight beat down on her white skin.

"Is Superboy like… me? Is he an Enigma Design?"

Robin almost twitched, but she saw it. She had said something wrong. He looked on ahead, "No. Not like you."

"Then what? How was he created?"

"I'm assuming you know what DNA is?"

"I know what that is."

Robin tried to be gentle about this. "If you use the right tools," she watched as he struggled to form words she could understand, "Then you can _create_ like without killing another. Superboy is a copy of Superman."

"...No he's not."

Ted didn't notice that the said boy was at the doorway, out of her sight but Robin must have seen him, because he looked like he was going to panic. Ted took this as Robin was confused. Ted often got scared when she was confused, she didn't know what to do.

"They don't have the same eyes."

"His eyes are different?" Robin sounded like he saw no such thing.

"Yes," Ted suddenly felt like a child (how, she didn't know, she never was a _child_), "I like his eyes better than Superman's. Superboy's eyes are a prettier blue."

"~_You're so close, so close  
__and its you I believe in I believe in  
__So close but faraway, I seek for your light  
__I'll hold on  
__Cuz for you my hearts keep beating  
__When the wind, the fire and all is gone  
__Caress me with your sweet lullaby_ ~"

The song changed to another track. Another without words. Maybe by chance, because between Ted and Robin, there was no more words exchanged.

* * *

Hallo had not returned for dinner, and so it was Bart that suggested that instead of making a mess and cooking they should just order a pizza.

"I can cook." Ted inputted to the conversation, "I think we have enough for five… Let me go check the fridge."

Ted had come inside after the track had ended, feeling the breeze and its chill like ice. Ted found out the hard way she couldn't handle the cold very well.

In the kitchen, the stainless steel that was the fridge had three doors, two for the up fridge and one large drawer for the freezer. She opened the fridge first, finding peppers, some potatoes, a packet of ground beef and other things. She stood with her thumb pressing against her bottom lip. She had the sudden urge to bite it.

There was chicken, she thought, maybe a chicken dish? But what if someone didn't eat chicken? What if someone were allergic?

"…Maybe we _should_ order a pizza."

Superboy was behind her, "When was the last time you when food shopping?"

"Last week I think. Between Dr. Hallo and myself, we don't eat that much."

Yes, they were smaller than other girls and even more so than the boys in living room. Superboy observed Ted as she pulled out a single bottled water. "I think I have some money upstairs, you pay for pizza right?" Ted was making a mental list of food to buy the next day. She closed the door, and paced to the living room. "The phone is by the lamp. I'll go get my wallet."

"You don't need to pay. I got my gold card."

"Oh… Hey Robin?"

"Yes?"

"What's a _pizza_?"

Bart had finally stopped zipping through her home. She had surprised herself on how quickly she got used to the red-haired blur. "Are you _serious_?" Bart gawked, "You _never_ had a _pizza_?"

"Dr. Hallo only buys organic foods."

"Robin," Bart was serious now, or at least as serious as he gets, "Ted needs pizza in her system. _Stat_."

Robin put in the order as Ted and Bart had an argument over what was best for a person. Bart was demanding that pizza was best for a growing child, but Ted was insisting that organic food was just was good if not better.

Ted ate organic meals.

"_Would that be all sir?_" the teller on the other end at the pizza shop asked politely, she seemed to have been in a hurry. Four pizzas with extra cheese, pepperoni, bacon, sausage, and finally mushroom.

"Actually, do you have any organic pizzas on the menu?"

"_Yes we do. Our Promise Pizza is made with only organic dough and cheese with only minimal grease."_

"Yeah, can I get a small Promise Pizza than? Extra cheese, plain."

"_Alright sir your order can be picked up in fifteen, thank you for ordering at Rilvio's Pizza."_

The line went dead. "_Eww_," Bart said, "You ordered _organic_ food? Organic food tastes _horrible_. Missing all the good stuff."

"Organic isn't _horrible_." Ted defended, "It keeps your system clean and it's healthier than all the steroids you're ingesting."

Robin put the phone back onto the hook. "I know Bart but Ted can't eat the same stuff we can. She's been fed organic food since she was born."

Ted didn't flinch. _Since she was born_. Robin knew she wanted to keep that secret and so she was thankful for that. However, Ted didn't know what Robin meant. "What do you mean I can't eat the same thing you can?"

"You're body wouldn't be able to cope with all the things organic foods don't have. Pesticides and steroids is something you've never encountered, it would make you sick the next day."

"Oh. Thank you for the organic pizza than."

"No problem."

* * *

_BART HAD BEEN THE ONE TO GET THE PIZZA, or to be more correct it was Bart who said "I'm the fastest, I'm getting it."_ And taking off with Robin's card to get the food. The living room was littered with pillows and blankets from the upstairs closet, Aqualad had said something about it looking like a 'sleepover' and Superboy had planted himself onto the couch. Ted was on the opposite end with her legs curled up under her as she sat on her hip rather than her bottom.

Dr. Hallo still hadn't returned home.

Ted was getting worried, but she had been gone for a few days before. At the most she would be 'asked' for her presence at a meeting or at some other place (Ted stopped listening to the excuses, it didn't matter so long as she came home) for a few days and she would return home. The longest had been two weeks, and Ted's little world in Hallo's little home had been in shambles upon Dr. Hallo's return. Ted was scared, that Hallo had been taken away finally and it would only be a matter of time before _people_ came and took her away.

But until she hit the two week mark, everything would be fine. They always were and they always will be. Aqualad was going through the movies, and Robin was going through Teds educational movies (nature, science, a few math, but movie here history documentaries) and Superboy was still sitting on the couch. The amount of Ted's movies surpassed Hallo's.

"Have you watched _all_ of these?" Robin was still fingering the movie titles.

"Yes, Dr. Hallo said it was almost as good as reading the history books."

There were medical documentaries as well. "And these?" Open heart surgery. Brain surgery. Fractured bones and torn muscles. The lists when on and on.

"Yea, those too. Hallo said I might like the medical field of profession like her so I gave it a chance. Hallo gave me this test, she said other people took them to get their '_PHD_' " Ted had no idea what that was, but knew it must have been important, "I passed it but Hallo said it was only the '_mock test'_. I wouldn't be able to take the real test until I was older."

The DVD in Aqualad's hand had dropped, and even Robin was frozen on the spot.

"…what?"

Ted was thanking whatever sentient being was living above her head because it was then Bart burst through her door carrying five boxes. "Pizza!" he cheered, "And guess what! I even got some soda and I didn't ruin the pizzas this time!"

Robin briefly explained that pizza had a layer of cheese over sauce and had the tendency to _move_ when carried incorrectly and messing up everything. High speed and pizza didn't mix well with others.

"Good for you." Robin said, and then turning serious, "Now hand over my card."

Pizza, as Ted found to her delight, was a wonderful food that she could eat (only the Promise Pizza) but Ted hadn't been a fan of the 'soda'. It almost burned her mouth on the first sip, and left a horrid taste in her mouth. She had given her cup to Bart, who seemed to be like a sponge when it same to food and drink. Her pizza was almost white, the size of one of the dinner plates and cut into six pieces. It was warm, a bit squishy but the smell was entirely new to her. Upon the first bite, she found that were was a red sauce under her cheese and it dribbled down her chin. Superboy was the one who silently handed her a napkin.

"Thank you." Was what she meant to say but it came out like "hmm-umm." As the cheese and sauce mingled and she didn't want to spray food on Superboy. He must have been irritated enough.

Bart on the other hand must have mastered the art of speaking around a full mouth of food. Robin spoke only when he swallowed his food and before he took another bite. Dr. Hallo said it was the _polite_ thing to do. Aqualad was peeling off the pepperoni and tossing it onto Bart's plate. Ted had managed to eat four pieces before feeling full. She closed her box and brushed off what crumbs off her shirt.

Aqualad and Bart were arguing over what movie to watch. Aqualad was holding the DVD case of called The Skeleton Key, and Bart was waving around The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Robin couldn't decide whether to watch the movie or the entertainment of watching the two heroes fight _over_ a movie. Robin had planted himself onto the chair next to Ted, and Superboy was now sitting next to Ted as Aqualad had taken his seat when he went to get a soda. Ted wondered if this is what a 'sleepover' was like for normal teenagers.

* * *

_BART HAD ASKED IF HE COULD SPEND THE NIGHT in the house as Robin and Aqualad packed their things and threw out the empty pizza boxes._ Superboy was living here for the moment so he had turned around upstairs and Ted could hear the shower running. Bart was on his knees in front of her as she was doing dishes. His hands clasped together in a fashion she had seen on TV when the characters were desperate.

"Please! Please! _Please_ can I stay here? Supey gets to stay!"

"That's because Superboy is living here Bart."

"… Can I stay?"

"Superboy has the guest room."

"I can sleep on the couch."

"I'm not having you sleep on the _couch_ Bart."

As much as Ted thought the couch was nice, whenever she slept on it she woke up with back pains and a splitting headache. Bart was persistent though, and Ted didn't want him sleeping on such an uncomfortable thing. Dr. Hallo's room was off-limits even to Ted, that was _her _room and Ted had no right to step into her space.

"Well…" Ted begun to think of places to sleep. The den didn't have a couch, the loveseat was too small, Superboy was sleeping in the guest room and Ted was out of options. "My bed is a queen size, we can share. It's more than enough for three people." Ted also didn't want to lose one of her new friends. Knowing that Hallo wasn't here was bad enough. Superboy didn't speak to her, and it was like he didn't even _like_ her. "I just have to change the comforter. It's supposed to get cold tonight."

Robin and Aqualad had left, before they said their goodbyes Robin and taken Bart into the next room was Ted went upstairs.

"_You're_ spending the night here? Who said you could?"

Robin didn't seem at all pleased when Bart said he wasn't leaving. Bart couldn't see what the big deal was, and honestly he would think that Robin was _jealous_.

"What's your deal man?" Bart sighed, "It's not like Ted's your girlfriend or something. You said there was _nothing_ between you two other than a mission." Bart squinted down at the shorter (but more experienced) hero, "… Is it possible that _you're jealous_?"

This must have had a hit. "Oh…" Bart pointed, "You have your '_I am disappoint'_ face now."

* * *

Ted flicked her wrist as she spread the thicker comforter onto her bed. It was a zebra print, and then a black bar, and then a hot pink snake skin print in that repetition. Thick, and warm, Ted was hoping Bart wouldn't mind the color scheme (and maybe even explain it because both Hallo and Ted were clueless) when he came up. Looking at the digital clock, Ted couldn't believe it was nearly midnight.

Pillow cases had already been changed, and this bed set was quickly becoming her favorite. One pillow was zebra print but it was feathered at the ends. Ted placed that into the nightstand, she often found herself with a mouth of feathers upon waking up.

The water stopped running and Superboy must have been done with his shower. Ted wondered if Bart needed a shower.

Crouching down, her bottom dresser-drawer was her pajama drawer, and pulled open the said drawer and sifted through its contents. Bart didn't have anything to sleep in. She tugged out a yellow shirt, no, she thought, this is too small for him. And placed it back inside. For herself she pulled out a long sleeved red shirt and black stockings. She finally found a shirt for Bart, at least one that would fit him.

It was blue, far too large for her to wear, short sleeved and it bold white letters it said 'LOVE EVERYONE'. Ted remembered paying for the shirt on the Internet but it wasn't until it came to the house did she learn that she hadn't picked the correct size. She mainly wore it as a night shirt but sometimes it would slip off her shoulder. Now that Bart had something to wear, what about Superboy?

Did they have time to buy something for him before they came home?

Tossing the shirt onto the bed, she ventured to the hall way and came to the guest bathroom which was located next and attached to the guest room. She gave a hesitant knock, "Superboy?" she called, only hearing the faint splash of water behind the door. He must be soaking now in the tub. She often did this to relax.

"Yea?" Superboy sounded exhausted.

"Do you have something to wear to bed?

More splashing, "… No…. I don't…"

"Alright then. I'll find something. Just remember to put your clothes in the basket next to the door."

"…I will."

It was rather awkward, Ted admitted to herself. Having to talk to someone like Superboy, whom didn't seem to _want_ to talk to her in the first place. The larger male behind the wall didn't make much noise as she began to walk away, only the faint sounds of the water beating against the walls of the bath. Walking away, she came back into her bedroom where Bart was sitting on the bed, "This is your room?"

His question sounded wistful, Ted thought that Bart was tired. It was late.

"Yes, this is my room. What does your's look like?"

Bart looked around, turning his neck and upper body to get a better look around her personal living space. "Not as big as this room for sure, and I don't have a bay window... It's always messy." He chuckled at his own joke and Ted felt that she should smile. "But it's home."

Ted picked up the clothes that she pulled out for him, "I saw you didn't bring any clothes," she briefly explained, "So I found a shirt that should fit you."

Bart smiled in his thanks, unfolding the shirt as Ted turned away to look for another shirt and maybe some shorts for Superboy. During her task, she could hear Bart shuffling to get out of his own clothes and into the ones she had given him. Pants were neatly folded with his belt wrapped in a loop over top the fabric. His top was also folded as she watched him pull the LOVE EVERYONE shirt over his head. He was only wearing the shirt and his boxers, but it seemed he was more interested in what was printed on the blue shirt. " 'Love Everyone'? Where'd you find this at?"

"I ordered it online," Ted recalled, disapproving a shirt that was to small for Superboy, "But I didn't know at the time you needed to specify what size you needed. So I only wear it for bed."

"Did you order another one?"

"Why would I? I like that bed shirt."

She finally found a shirt that would be big on Superboy, even just a little. It was a red shirt with no sleeves that Hallo had given her on Ted's first night in her new home. Red, and there was the printed image of what was a leaf-less tree. Little black hearts hung from thread on the tree branches and this had perplexed Ted and she had even asked Dr. Hallo why they hanged from the tree on the shirt. Dr. Hallo said that it was just an image, not everything had a purpose. This had not comforted Ted.

"Hold on," she said, "I have to give this to Superboy. He doesn't have anything for bed."

Leaving the room was easy enough but the act of giving Superboy the shirt in person was a terrifying thought and one she almost thought of asking Bart to perform in her stead. Superboy's door was still closed. Off from her, and off-limits to everyone else. Knocking on the wood, she feared she would have to do it again for not knocking loud enough, or maybe she was disturbing him and he was already asleep.

"...Superboy? Are you still awake?"

"...Yeah..."

She feared she had woken him from sleeping. Her green eyes watched the wood as if it were going to attack her. "I have your shirt, can I open the door?"

"... It's open."

* * *

Ted came back into her room, and saw that Bart was already close to falling asleep. He was under the covers and he was also snuggling to the middle pillow she normal slept on. She paid him no heed as she pulled out a small yellow shirt and sleeping shorts that matched. Silently, as she didn't want to disturb Bart who was close to the dreamland, she lifted her shirt over her head before beginning on her bra-strap.

Bart was suddenly wide awake.

Still, she didn't look at him. Only dropping the black bra and then her jeans into the dirty-laundry hamper. She tugged on the yellow shirt and then stepped into her bed shorts. Ted was quick into the warmth of the bed sheets next to Bart.

"I- uh... I-I could h-ave left if you were getting changed..."

Ted looked over her shoulder as she made herself comfortable, "Hmm? Why would I make you go outside? It's nighttime and it's cold out there."

* * *

Ted was sleeping as Superboy ventured through her doors. Bart had fallen asleep long before, and was now cuddled up to her side, his face just touching her shoulder. Superboy floated over the floor boards, knowing full well that he would make noise and then wake them up. Superboy was wearing the red shirt, it was almost tight on him and Superboy wondered why there were hearts on the trees but it was just a stupid shirt he had to wear. He had lost his temper in the shopping center lost whatever could have been apart of his wardrobe.

Ted was a small girl, even though he hadn't _met_ that many girls he knew at instant that even she was smaller than most. She lay on her back in the center of her bed, Bart laying on his stomach pressed up against her right side with his arm draped over her stomach. Neither of them stirred.

_From behind the wooden boards, he could see them clear as day. Ted look terrified, a hopeful terrified as she tried in vain to contain herself. "Is Superboy like… me? Is he an Enigma Design?" Her question didn't strike him as a normal. Design? Maybe Ted was a clone? And maybe he wasn't as alone as he thought. Robin kept his eyes ahead, Superboy almost thought Robin could see him and knowing the Bat-trained boy he _could_. He shook his head. _

"_No. Not like you."_

Ted didn't move, but sighed through her lips when Superboy lifted the bed sheets and lowered himself beside on her left side. Bart didn't move when his hand went just a little lower when the sheet lifted and he didn't make a sound when there was a sudden wind chill. Superboy sighed, wondering just _why _he was here and not in _his own_ bed.

He shouldn't be here.

_I like his eyes better than Superman's. Superboy's eyes are a prettier blue._

He shouldn't be here.

He should not be _here._

Ted sighed again. Her arm looped around his neck and brought his head closer to her neck. Her head turned and her lips grazed his temple. "Go to sleep Superboy..." with another sigh she was sleeping again.

Superboy stayed, Ted hadn't ordered him to stay and it wasn't like she could _make_ him stay. But he did.

And he closed his _prettier blue_ eyes.

* * *

Hallo walked through her front door at nearly eight that morning. As it turned out, Superboy _wouldn't_ be staying the week with her and Ted and Hallo felt that was just fine. Her phone buzzed in her jacket pocket. A text message.

**No compromise. Proceed.  
****-DS**

She sighed, closing her phone and making note to delete the message later. Glancing around her house, she noticed that there were movies out of place and that the trash was fuller then it was supposed to be. Clean dishes hadn't been put away and the furniture was moved a few inches out of place. Hallo had been wary of leaving Ted to herself and Superboy but she had seen Superboy's indifference towards Ted. Hallo could only hope Superboy would be gone sooner than later.

Her house was silent. The radio wasn't playing, there wasn't the insignificant buzz of the TV or a shower running. A quick run over of the kitchen revealed no notes to tell of Ted's whereabouts. Maybe she was still sleeping. Ted had always had a hard time sleeping, always getting up in the middle of the night to get another blanket because no matter what it was always cold. Her room temperature was raised to seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit and _still_ Ted needed more than one heavy blanket. Hallo moved towards the stairs, the air of unease hanging around the hall.

Ted normally closed her door, however her door was wide open, and Superboy's door was open too. Strange.

A glance into Superboy's room and Hallo found that the bed was messy but there was no one occupying it. Stranger.

Another glance across the hall, into Ted's room, and Hallo forced herself to _remember_ to breath as the sight caused her lungs to freeze. Ted was nestled, looking like she was getting the best sleep in her (short) life that didn't involve Hallo secretly giving her sleeping medication in her dinner. Ted was in the center of the bed, laying on her back with one arm around Kid Flash's shoulders (he wasn't in _uniform!_) her other arm was used as a pillow for Superboy. Both boys were snuggled to Ted's pale neck off in dreamland.

Ted _rarely_ slept past six because she was always waking up _cold_.

Between Kid Flash and the younger Superboy, she was between two living electrical blankets. _Warm_.

Hallo couldn't help but snap a picture, making sure the flash was off as not to startle the sleeping children in the bed.

* * *

_THREE DAYS HAD COME AND GONE_ _LIKE A DREAM and Ted was now forced back into the real world. _The dreamer had to wake up. Two days before now, Bart had to leave after lunch stating that the older Flash had called him in for training and with quick goodbyes and promises to visit soon, Bart was gone. Ted sat on the swinging bench that Superboy had been so kind as to move _from_ the porch to the large tree in the front yard. Hallo hadn't been angry, but she had given Superboy a stern word of advise _not_ to do such a thing again on _someone else's_ property. Ted had been unaware until she came outside to do her daily reading and found the bench was simply _gone_.

Superboy was first in the bench, stretched out on a bed comforter and pillows in the sunlight. Ted had requested a spot and after a moment, Superboy made enough room for her to squeeze in. Now Ted was against the pillow and Superboy was using her stomach as his own pillow. Superboy on his stomach between her thighs as Ted used her limp leg to keep the gentle motion of swinging.

Superboy's eyes were closed when there was a sudden shadow above them.

"Robin?" Ted questioned the male in the tall tree. He nodded with a smile on his face. "Glad to see you two getting along."

"Yeah," Ted was uncertain how to respond, "Why wouldn't we get along?"

"Nothing to worry about, I'm here to pick up you and Superboy."

Superboy opened his eyes. "What for?"

Ted had learned Superboy didn't like to wake up before he chose too.

"Young Justice is officially a branch of the Justice League. Batman and Superman are over looking our new headquarters and making sure everything is up to date."

Ah, the _Young Justice_. Ted remembered Robin saying something about them forming a new team. Ted didn't know _all_ the details pertaining to _why_ but she thought that it wasn't her place. If they didn't want her to know then that was that. No more questions. Superboy sighed when he lifted himself up by levitation. Ted could feel the prickles of the cold coming back.

_I'm here to pick up you and Superboy_

Ted shut her book, and slipped on her sneakers that were sitting idle in the cut grass. Superboy folded up the thick blanker and held the pillows with his TTK (which she found its existence when Superboy's bed was making itself after Bart left). Her reading glasses on the tip of her nose. "I didn't think you would get approved so quickly, I've read those type of things take some time and debate."

Robin looked rather happy, his hands on his hips and he leaned back, doing a mid-air back-flip and then crouched on the ground. Straightening up, he moved from side to side as he stretched out his legs and hips.

"I thought so too. But Batman thought it was a good idea."

"So this means you are still part of the Justice League?"

"Something like that, we'll be getting covert missions from Batman, the JL will handle all the obvious stuff."

"I _might_ have mentioned to Batman about your supposed medical skills. He wants you to take a few tests and if you're up for it you'll be appointed CMO."

"CMO?"

"Chief Medical Officer."

* * *

"Why did you _fail_ to inform the League that you have been _training_ Ted under _your_ supervision without the permission of the League?" In the familiar place of the Justice League Council, Dr. Hallo was once again put on the spot and in the literal spot-light as the _unhappy_ League members drilled for answers and information.

"We allowed you custody of The Enigma Design under contract that she would have the most _normal_ life possible." Batman, of course he would be the main interrogator. Maybe he was a hypocrite. "What _child_ can score _nearly perfect_ on a Medical Ph. D test?"

"You forget that _Ted_," Hallo hated it whenever they called her by Design instead of her name, "Is _nowhere near_ a normal child. She's learning too quick to even know what a normal life is." Hallo gave her argument, but it was Wonder Woman who interrupted her before she could finish.

"Your _job_ was to make sure she would learn everything at an _even_ pace. From what I understand, that girl does nothing but study in her spare time."

"Yes, she does study a lot. She found my old student books I used when I was in college and things progressed from there. She inquired if I could teach her what I know and I did. I did so for _her_ benefit."

Wonder Woman and Batman didn't seem pleased. "And how does this benefit her?" the Martian questioned, and Superman fallowing with his own inquiry. "I know you care for Ted, Dr. Hallo, but I am not pleased to say that your latest report isn't what I wanted to see."

"And what _did_ you want to see? Hmm?" Hallo was on her last nerve with the League. Constantly keeping Ted away from the public and they had to get special _fucking_ permission to do anything. "You think that a person, whom I remind you was locked up, constantly tested and prodded simply in the name of science and you have the nerve to think that living outside of that would fix things?"

For once the League was silent. Hallo was not. "I have trained Teddy so that one day she wouldn't need me to go on with her life. She needs a direction in her future career and I will be _damned_ if the _Justice League_ is going to dictate her life. I personally do not believe will have a _chance_ at normal life because she was never given the chance to act like someone her age. Sending her to a public school was supposed to allow her firsthand observation and interaction with others her age. But it would seem that _none_ of you caught that little detail. Except for Batman maybe, but I guess you must still think that Teddy is a danger to herself and others."

Batman was not pleased, with Hallo's blunt accusation that the _world's greatest detective_ was a simpleton.

"But," Hallo sighed, "She got the chance to interact with our younger heroes Robin, Kid Flash, Superboy and Aqualad. I'm pleased to say that Superboy is beginning to warm up to the outside world much life Teddy had."

Superman suddenly seemed at attention. "How is he?" he asked almost hesitantly. "He's not being any trouble is he?"

"Trouble? No. No trouble at all. I'm getting tired of calling him Superboy though; you should come up with a _real name_ for him soon."

Superman ignored her last statement, "How is he with Ted? Does he try to fight? Is he honestly trying to get used to the outside world?"

Honestly. Superman could at least _act_ like he cared for the young boy. Hallo knew that at their first meeting, Superboy had openly admitted that he was the clone of Superman but as it would seem, was brushed off. Unwanted.

"He was taught telepathically about the outside world. He can read and write and know right from wrong. He needs guidance for sure, as any other teenager would." Ted had needed more guidance than ever when she first came outside. "As for the subject of their interaction," Hallo recalled the warm sight of Ted between Kid Flash and Superboy sleeping, and then the next morning Superboy was awake in the same spot as before. Ted still sleeping. Like a guard or a protector. "I would say it would be beneficial that they learned with each other than apart. They seem to be learned from each other, unconsciously but they are learning."

"How so, Dr. Hallo?"

"Superboy has never, aside from the doctors and such personal below Cadmas, interacted with another person of his own free will. Ted was able to move freely about the Home Base but whenever she would speak to the nurses, they nurses aren't worried about _Ted_, instead they are worried that they're not getting the correct data to return to Dr. Stein. Not her personal being, Superboy finds this type of behavior as alien and he doesn't quite understand that it's not a bad thing. Because he doesn't understand, he vents out his frustrations and so he appears angry, but he's not. He's _confused_."

"The difference between Ted and Superboy are not of _how_ they were brought into this world, one through the act of murder and the other through thievery, but of the luxury of what lies they were fed."

Hallo continued, "Ted was once told of a family she never had so she was spared the dirty details of her birth, while Superboy was told the truth that he was engineered as a weapon, a copy of _Superman_. Ted was given the basic needs of a human such as her physiological, safety, something akin to love respect and she is currently learning her potential.

Superboy was living in a test tube and his needs were met through the gene-gnomes telepathic abilities and so he remains _sane_. However, he has never acted upon those basic needs himself so he doesn't know how to respond to certain gestures. Give him time and he will learn on his own."

Silence veiled over the council, and there was still the air was tense and angry. Hallo wanted nothing more then to put them in the children's place (if one could call Ted and Superboy _children_) but knowing that the impossible was, in fact, _impossible_.

"I can see your argument," Batman called out from his seat and Superman sighed in agreement, "Ted has the right to learn what she wants. I've sent Robin to pick up Superboy and Ted as we speak. I want to know who asked who before considering Ted as CMO."

This was when _everyones_ heads turned like a swivel on their necks. "CMO?" Flash whispered under his breath. Hallo could feel a migraine start behind her temples.

"You're making her Chief Medical Officer?"

"Since the League doesn't feel that she is ready for a total social life in the public school system, Superman and I spoke about the terms of the new covert team 'Young Justice'. A small group that will be handling covert missions that includes Robin, Superboy, Aqualad, possibly Speedy, and Miss Martian. For security purposes you will not know the location of their base but you will be in contact with Ted under League supervision. I also want to speak with you alone Dr. Hallo. I have some questions."

Hallo could feel a weight in her stomach. Cold. Hard. She watched helplessly as others began to file outside of the room. Leaving her alone in the gaze of the Dark Knight. Even Superman was gone.

Alone with the Knight. Alone in the night.

* * *

_YOUNG JUSTICE HAD BEEN ESTABLISHED just after Ted passed the exam Batman himself had created for her_. Ted felt a sense of fulfillment when Superman handed her a paper that he said legally assigned her as Chief Medical Officer and then informed her of her duties. The buzz behind her neck was simply... _warm_ or maybe that was just the strange rumble that Superboy made during the late hours of the night. Like a cat, he was give a deep 'purr' when the temperature was almost sweat inducing.

Ted was too happy too interrupt Superboy.

_She was worth something, a purpose._

Tonight Superboy had come into the bed, another queen size with her bed set from Hallo's home, before she had came out of the shower. The first day had not been a nice as Ted had hoped. Miss Martian, a green skinned and red haired young lady, was almost as dim to customs as Ted was. She spoke telepathically, and Superboy hadn't liked that one bit. No doubt from his previous experience, but Ted had to also agree that someone who was able to sneak into your mind (and _memories_) was a terrifying thing for someone to have.

Not to mention it felt as if a wet, spiky sponge was rubbing and caressing the walls of her skull. It was not a pleasant experience for anyone.

At the moment, Ted glanced at her new clock that read1 1:34 AM, a soft red glow in the dark. The young woman was currently laying on her side with the heavy comforter at her hips, Superboy on his opposite side facing her, his forehead just touching her stomach. Neither knew (or cared) how this sleeping arrangement founded itself but it was enjoyable.

Knowing they wouldn't wake up cold and alone in the morning, and how warm it was in the dark of the night. She had read that romantic couples did such things, and she would often blush at the thought of Superboy holding her hand in the public eye. She blushed at the thought of them touching lips. Blushed when she thought of him turning his facial muscles into the smile she still had yet to bare witness too.

Such things however were not for her.

Ted sighed, knowing full well that such a life would never be for her. Baring the thought of her birth, and how selfish it looked to her on having her own life (without the consideration of the former selves) and being _happy_ in that life was an alien thought. Much to different too act upon and was a perfect price of penance to pay for the crime she did not commit but was evidence/result of.

Even if she were to take out the green eyes that were not her own, the sin will not leave with them.

Ted then became aware of Superboy purring. Her hand was running up, down, up, down, his arm in repetition. For skin as touch as steel, it felt warm and soft and gentle under her fingers. Her lips curved up as she looked down at his sleeping form. To excited to sleep, and yet too tired to stay awake.

"We need a real name for you Superboy."

His pretty blue eyes moved under his eye lids.

The dreamer kept dreaming.


	3. Chapter 3

_My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy, and when wrenched by misery to vice and hatred,  
__it did not endure the violence of the change without torture such as you cannot even imagine.  
__**- Mary Shelley's Frankenstein**_

* * *

_FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN WAS THE OLDEST & THE STRONGEST OF FEAR MAN COULD FEEL and now that very fear had taken Hallo's thoughts by storm._ Terrible thoughts and terrible demons Hallo had never encountered before reared their ugly little heads. Her little Teddy was going to be leaving the nest. Though, the child was not _a_ child or _her_ child but in a sense of word Ted had been her _daughter_.One she was more than happy to teach, nurture, and love and give her all the things she had been denied in the co-called life of the Home Base. Her last meeting with the Justice League had been her _last_; she would not be seeing them again for the same purpose because now the circumstances had changed.

Ted was now under the title of CMO of the covert team Young Justice.

Ted was owned by the Justice League.

She sat in her house, reading over the reports of Teds advancements over the last year in her care. Problem was, she wasn't _looking_ at the words. The blond woman had never noticed how _empty_ her house was. There wasn't someone sitting with her at breakfast (she had made French toast and set a second plate), there was no surprise begging to a trip to the book store (which she now took alone and sent them off to Ted) and on Tuesday nights, movie night was just to _different_ to attempt on her own.

Simple to say that Dr. Hallo was lonely.

This morning, now officially a week since Ted had left the house, Hallo had yelled upstairs for Ted only to realize for the umpteenth time that Ted was gone. Hallo had spoken to the JL about her time with Ted, she would only see her (monitored of course) twice a month until further notice. Another week had to pass before Hallo could be sure that her little girl (Ted was _her_ daughter) was alright and that no real harm had happened to Ted.

Motherhood.

Possibly the greatest gift that all women could have or want. Hallo was wounded on the field, a stray bullet at hit her and such _organs_ had been to badly damaged, and _had_ to be removed. Ripped away from Hallo, but given another by the hands of Dr. Stein, whom she had met while they both were in Africa. When the man had said "Perhaps we could help each other. I want to create life, and you want to raise it. Will you join me?" She had thought maybe he was going in a cloning program.

Of course she would jump at the chance to a child she had always wanted.

Now the child had gone away to a life she _wanted_. Her baby wasn't alone, and her baby now had _friends_ that she could talk with in a way Hallo could never dream of having with her. Hallo peered up to the book shelf.

A little red shard cup sat, glinting brightly even in the dim light.

* * *

Current events of the city life were rather new and as to be so bold, a nice change of things from the suburbs. Living in a mountain base called the Secret Sanctuary with two members of the Justice League, Red Tornado and Black Canary, didn't seem all to adventurous yet but the team was still young. Red Tornado was a machine, cold and calculated but Ted has yet to be introduced to the team trainer Black Canary. Ted had questions she had wanted to ask but every time she ventured to find the training area she would get lost. Her sense of direction was shot in her new home, and she often found herself yelling out for Superboy or Megan (the earth name Miss Martian had adopted) in her confusion. Sometimes, she would hear Superboy calling out for her, trying to find the smaller female that it was time for lunch, or dinner.

Needless to say, Superboy had given Ted a map and politely said ( "Stop getting lost." ) to keep it with her. A week gone and Ted hadn't seen the other members of Young Justice. No doubt they were living their civilian lives but it would be nice to see them again. Superboy and Ted would leave the mountain base and go walk around the shopping centers for lunch or maybe the book store. The book store called 'Nobles' was a grand four story building with books and movies and more books and Ted had been ecstatic to find it. There was a little sitting area on each floor with a small restaurant that Superboy went in as Ted scoured the lines of book shelves to get himself a coffee.

Sometimes he would go book hunting with her.

Today was a Saturday, relatively warm but Ted and Superboy still wore light jackets. Ted was wearing a simple black shirt that and dark 'skinny' jeans and knee high slim black boots. Superboy, walking beside her, was in a black short sleeved shirt and loose jeans. With nothing to do in the base and Megan being elsewhere (training with the Martian Man hunter maybe?) they had decided to have a day outside.

"Was there anywhere special you wanted to go to?"

In reality, it was Superboy that had said "This blows. Lets get outside." and Ted couldn't help but jump at the chance of going into a city development. She never really had a chance to explore because she was not allowed to leave Dr. Hallo's side.

"I thought we should get things for tonight. Megan's not too good with dinner... or meals..."

"She means well."

Superboy said nothing but looked on ahead. Megan was not much of a cook. Forgetting there was something in the oven, not knowing the difference between what was a spice or a sauce or adding to much of something. The last dinner hadn't been to good. In fact, Ted was having a hard time tasting the toothpaste this morning after a bowl of cereal. Megan was really trying though, she was a sweet girl.

"Ah, well then did you want anything special for dinner?"

"What was that chicken Hallo made for us? Last Tuesday I think it was..."

"The honey mustard chicken?"

"Yea, we had rice with it."

"I know how to make it. We'll have that tonight then."

The supermarket was larger than the one near Hallo house, and it was a lot busier too. Ted had the pleasantries of small talk with people who often thought she worked there. Politely telling them where their desired item was and then going on her way. "I'll go get the chicken, what else is in this stuff?"

"Rice, mustard, we already have sour cream, and I think we need more milk while we're here..."

The trip for a few things turned into full blast grocery shopping. Something Ted found herself enjoying but she suspected that Superboy liked it too. Going outside and feeling some semblance of normalcy was truly a humbling feeling. Now they were walking back to their new home. Superboy was carrying most of the bags, and Ted was only carrying one in each arm as Superboy had six. Along the whole way, Ted was continuously trying to convince the taller male to at least let her handle _two_ of his bags.

Still the Superboy declined her wishes and carried on to their home at Mount Justice.

In the kitchen, both Ted and Superboy saw that Megan was once again gone and Ted was digging through the bags to get out the items needed for their dinner. The trip turned out to be a few hours because they needed to get organics due to Teds previous diet. She almost wished she _wasn't_ on the organic diet but knew that her body couldn't handle much of anything else.

"Would you mind if I helped you?"

"Of course not Superboy."

* * *

Star City harbor had been the center drug market trade and stock piling of illegally gained weapons. Aqualad, Kid Flash, and Robin were sent there to gain favor of Speedy to join the covert team Young Justice.

They had been unsuccessful and to be honest, Ted wasn't sure that she _wanted_ Speedy in Young Justice.

Today they would finally be meeting Red Tornado. They had been waiting for a few minutes before the rush of air and the men of metal arrived on the earth. He had not arrived through the 'warp' gate like Robin and Bart but came by more natural means. "Red Tornado!" Bart shouted, waving his hand in his hellos.

"Greetings. Is there a reason you intercept me outside the cave?"

The first thing that Ted saw was that his voice was hard. Unfeeling. Cold. The tall male was even taller than Superboy, it was Aqualad that answered his direct question.

"We hoped you had a mission for us."

"Mission assignments are Batman's responsibility."

"But is been over a week-!" Robin was interrupted by the red metal.

"Will be tested soon enough. Until then simply enjoy each others company."

No one was happy. Everyone was wearing the frown that Ted had jointed with the emotion of disappointment. "This team is not a _social club_."

"No," Red Tornado agreed, "But I am told that social interaction is an important team exercise. Perhaps you could keep busy by learning the layout of the cave."

And with this he marched forward, the most direct root into the mountain. Everyone watched until he was out of earshot. Or what was the earshot of a man made of metal. Ted could only watch.

"_Keep busy_." he hissed, and Robin's brow furrowed together. The air was distasteful, and Ted wanted to _leave_. She couldn't wrap her mind around what was wrong. They all knew something she obviously didn't. "Does he _think_ we're falling for this?"

"Oh! I'll find out!"

She must have tried to read his mind. "Oh, I forgot. He's a machine. Inorganic. I cannot read his mind."

"Nice try though," Bart tried to sooth her feelings, and Ted heard something in his voice like she had heard when they had first met. Did he do this with everyone he first meets? "So uh, you know what I'm _thinking_ of right now?"

He was roughly pushed by Robin, "We _all_ know what you're thinking of right now."

Ted didn't know and she didn't want to face the awkwardness of asking. Standing with them, she felt rather out of place.

Ted turned around, "We should show them around." Ted wanted to leave. She felt bothered by so many people, and there must have been something wrong. Oh! She thought, I haven't taken my medicine this morning. "On second thought, Megan and Superboy show them around. I have something that needs my attention."

Ted was quick to excuse herself, and Superboy tried to fallow but she convinced him that it was something she should take care of on her own. She forced her pace calm and collected until she was at least out of their sights before _running_ to her bedroom.

Her chest felt like it was on fire by the time she got to her room. She crawled over her bed to reach the end table where she kept the white bottle and a half full bottle of water. Her hands were almost shaking when she finally placed a tablet on her tongue, and as it instantly melted, she felt better.

Even more so when she swallowed it down with the water. She took in a deep breath, trying to calm her speeding pulse and cool down her blood. A glance at the clock, it was nearly noon, and so she had made the pill on time. Hallo had said that everything will be alright so long as she took the pill before noon.

Every day, once a day.

* * *

Ted arrived to the kitchen in hopes of catching them before they came through. Also because she smelled something burning. She had made note earlier that Megan was making some sort of sweet dish, and by judging the small black around circles on the cookie pan, she had failed. Entering the kitchen she saw that Superboy was sitting on the small bench in the next hallway that was jointed to the room.

"Superboy?" she called, getting his attention, she received a side glance of blue eyes, "What's wrong? Where are the others?"

"Did you take care of whatever it was you needed?" Superboy had completely ignored her question with his own. Her brow came together in her confusion.

"Y-Yes, I'm fine now. What about you?" she urged him to talk, "Why are you here by yourself?"

Superboy looked almost ashamed. "… Megan did her telepathic mind talk again."

Oh. Ted had learned from the first time the green teenager spoke to Superboy through telepathy and the result had been a hot and angry Superboy. It had taken Ted an hour and a half to convince the taller male that the green girl didn't mean any harm, and more than likely didn't know it was an invasive move. The air around the boy had once been as hard as steel, but know as he cooled down the feeling around him was finally approachable. Ted found the will to gently sit her weight on the bench next to him. Their knees just barely gracing the other.

"And what did you do?" Ted found she had to push Superboy to speak about his actions, he simply _wouldn't_ tell her unless she asked. "Did you…" she struggled to find the word that wouldn't light the already short fuse that was Superboy's temper, "Did you overreact?" She almost wished she wasn't in this situation.

"…I did."

Now Superboy had his head lowered, no doubt feeling the shame of his actions. Ted sat closer to him, outing her arms around his neck, bringing her to him. Dr. Hallo would do this whenever she felt depressed, or when she had woken up from a nightmare. Often at times, Ted wouldn't dare wake Hallo after dark, knowing very well that she works extreme hours and in extreme conditions with the League and knew that the last thing she would want to come home to was _her_.

Strange enough, every time she woke up in absolute silence, Hallo would come walking through her bedroom door and embrace her.

Every time.

So Ted had learned what comfort was, she was at first afraid of Hallo embracing her. In her mind, Ted didn't want the comfort because she did not deserve it. She had not earned it, and for a time, had not wanted it. But even though she struggled, telling Dr. Hallo that all was right and nothing was wrong through tears and sobs, Hallo would not relinquish her hold. Now Ted had to repeat the teachings of Hallo on Superboy. Whether he liked it or not.

"Everything is all right." She said to him, he didn't tremble, he didn't sigh and he didn't speak a word as she repeated the same words Hallo would whisper in the night.

"Everything is all right."

* * *

_HEIGHTS ABOVE STAR CITY WAS NOT AS EXCITING as Ted had hoped it would be._ Today, after taking off his the organic ship Megan owned, Ted had learned she had a fear of heights. The ground was _far_ below them, and they were _far_ above it. Their seats felt strange, like putty, warm putty that shifted and moved like a twitching muscle and the seat beats snaked over their torsos like a living thing. Though, for all Ted knew, this ship _was_ a living thing. The small girl with green eyes didn't want to ask, only because she was afraid of opening her mouth in fear of screaming in freight in the ship took a sudden barrel roll. Her grip on the arms of the chair turned her knuckles white and she prayed to anything that would listen that no one would notice.

Megan was at the command of the ship, the green female being at the highest point in the flying machine while Robin sat at the very front, looking over a series of unlabeled keys. The second row was Bart, and across from the speedster was herself. Second to the last row, Superboy sat front of Bart, and Aqualad was front of Ted.

Ted wondered _how_ they talked her into getting into this death trap. Oh yes, she remembered, Megan said it was _safe_, that the ship had _nothing wrong_ with it and Robin was all like _cool let's do it_. Least to say, Ted was currently a _very unhappy camper._ She sat stiffly, and she was sure that she was feeling the hair of the nape of her neck stand up because it was prickly and unpleasant. Ted looked to her left, where there was a simple blank wall because she couldn't trust herself to look outside the front window. She had to swallow the lump in her throat several times, promising her stomach that it could release itself later.

"This ship is beautiful." Robin whistled as he fiddled around with the front controls.

"She sure is," Bart was looking up at Megan with a dazed look, and he suddenly twitched in his seat in a mild panic that Ted couldn't find source to. "A-and of course this ship, like every ship, is a _she_."

Ted couldn't _imagine_ a single reason why Robin would think _this_ was neat. This was horrible to put it lightly. She felt like she was being crushed into her seat.

Fear. Ted came to conclusion. _This_ was the feeling of fear. And unlike other _feelings_ she had come in contact with, this was extremely unpleasant and she didn't wish to meet it. She needed to get out. She had to get off this thing. Her green eyes darted around, seeing that everyone else was _enjoying_ the ride. Even Superboy was looking out the side window. She took in a deep breath slowly, she couldn't ruin it for them.

_Just bare it a little longer Ted._ The soothing sound of her old, and her first friend Voice, was like a cool wet chill over heated nerves. _You'll send yourself into another panic attack. Calm yourself. Come on, that's it. Breath. Breath. Breath._

Ted tried, but her throat felt like it was closing in on itself and her vision was blurring. She could barely hear anything other than her heart in her ears. Everything was a blur of color and she could feel her head being filled with fuzz and static.

_Everything will be alright._

Again with those words! Ted almost wanted to tell Voice to keep quiet but such actions would prove useless because it wasn't like Ted could do anything to force Voice to remain silent. Superboy was sitting up straight all of a sudden. His head turned up to the air as he took in sudden breathes from his nostrils. He moved to stand, and the seatbelt removed themselves from his person to allow him to do so. Robin was talking with Megan about the inner workings of her ship. Ted would have been interested had she not been so frozen in her dread. She was suddenly aware of a dim voice calling her name.

"Ted? Hey Ted, you alright there?" It was Bart, he sounded so far away. Muffled and distant.

"I'm fine." Her voice sounded stiff even to herself. She felt her stomach roll again, just _begging_ to empty what was her breakfast (some toast with a single egg inside) and she could feel invisible hands trying to tighten her lungs. She didn't turn her head to look at Bart, simply to say that she _couldn't_ move her neck. Muscles iced with fear and terror.

Then Superboy was beside her, his face distorted like he saw something he didn't like. Strange enough he was looking at her. He was standing between her and Bart, acting like a wall. Gently she was aware of his hand cupping the side of her head, and gently still pulling her to him. Her head now resting against his stomach.

"... Everything is alright."

After all, fear of the unknown was the oldest fear man has ever known.

And then fear turned into a man who brought down the plane, who called himself Mister-Twister.

* * *

Ted remained in the ship even after it had spun out of control in the freak tornado. Through the open hatch, she witnessed what was _supposed_ to be teamwork. Only, it hadn't worked out that way. On the retreat back to Mount Justice, she did a look-over her fellow teammates and suspected that Robin had a fractured wrist, Bart might have torn something in his leg and from Superboy she could only think that he felt ashamed over his over all performance.

The cuts and bruises he had gotten healed right before her eyes! Sealing them without a drop of blood and from the lack of redness of his skin she could only think that there was little as to no irritation or pain to Superboy. The trip back was quiet, not even Bart wanted to open his mouth and Megan couldn't say anything encouraging either.

"I can't believe we thought _that_ was Red Tornado." Robin muttered and he put his thumb in his mouth as a gesture of frustration and confusion.

Ted was binding one of Kaldurs hands. "What happened out there?"

"We got our buts handed down too us." Megan, downed by their first battle and the loss of it. Her green hands were hovering over what Ted suspected to be the main steering. Ted focused on Kaldur's hand.

She felt that the skin felt different, as to put the term lightly. Pressing down on the skin, it felt like rock, but softly running her fingers over the dark toned skin it felt calloused and firm. She wondered if this was the result of living under the pressure of the ocean. Kaldur didn't seem to mind Ted as she inspected his hand and felt the differences between them. A childish curiosity, but she went no further than his wrist. The tattoos she had seen glow felt smooth and almost… _cold_ to the touch. The green eyed girl didn't notice the blue eyes looming over the two.

"Ted," Superboy had called gently, almost gently, "…My hand hurts."

The same green eyes peered over her shoulder, looking over at the hand that Superboy was holding over for her to inspect. She hadn't seen any swelling, no bleeding and all the bones were in place as he could still move his fingers. Her hands were still holding the hand of Kaldurs she was inspecting. "Does it feel sore? Any particular sharp pains?"

"It feels sore."

* * *

Her heels clicked furiously down the tiled flooring and nimble hands worked just as hard to tame her wind-wild golden hair. It had come to Hallo's attention that her little Teddy had been amidst a battle, was in the red zone and could have died while in an _alien aircraft_ that was _forcibly_ brought _down_. Needless to say, the surrogate mother, and as would any other mother turn, an angry hot beast that even Wonder Woman could not stop. Not through the front gates. Not through the fake library. Not through the double doors into the Hall of Justice.

And _certainly_ not through into the meeting hall.

"Where is she! Where's Teddy!" Hallo's cheeks were pink now, and her blue eyes, normally soft and carefree were harder than diamond. The blond doctor had interrupted a meeting about the very subject of their younger protégé's success of bringing down the 'Mister Twister'. "You said she wouldn't be in the line of fire! Why was she out there today!"

The blond woman was enraged, seething through her teeth as a dragon would protecting her hoard or clutch. "_Why was she out there!_"

"The attack," the monotone voice of Red Tornado, "was plotted more against myself and the league rather then the younger ones." He tried to explain thought dodging the obvious question, "However, They had destroyed Mister Twister in their last encounter. Ted was safe in the Sanctuary out of the literal 'line of fire'."

"The first encounter shouldn't have happened in the first place! Do you have any idea how _valuable_ Ted? And _too think_ that something _like this_ happened on _your_ watch!" Even though the Red Tornado was a metal android it didn't stop Hallo from stepping in front of him.

"The young female designated as 'Ted' was aboard the ship before I called the disturbance. Miss Martian was showing them her ship and the sights of the city and Ted went along."

The blond doctor could not believe her ears. "Why would she go on an air ship? Ted has a fear of heights! Who else was present on the ship?"

"All current members of Young Justice."

Then of course she would go along. Robin _and_ Superboy was on the air craft, and it was normal for any teenager (no matter how they were brought up) to ignore their fears and ignore the consequences in order to feel apart of something. Hallo felt _some_ anger fade away, but the point still remains.

Ted had been on the forbidden battle field. She was placed in a situation where Batman himself had said she would not be placed in. "Was she injured?"

"No known injuries."

"Known injuries?"

Hallo would not be deterred from Ted's safety just because the Justice League was getting in the way. Hallo had been there the day Ted was 'born'. "I want MRI's by next week. I want Batman to cancel the next test." Hallo turned on heel, only to pause at the voice of Wonder Woman. "What is this about doctor?"

"...This is about a mother protecting her baby."

__

__

__

_

* * *

_

STRANGEST AFFAIRS OF MOUNT JUSTICE was possibly making dinner for everyone that currently lived permanently or semi-permanent residence.

Sometimes Superboy would be picky over what they would have that night and sometimes he couldn't care less. Though he was always quick to help, and sometimes he would brave doing something himself using only the organic cookbook Hallo had sent Ted through the mail that was full of little notes of how the make the dish better. Kaldur had seen all the organic cookbooks and had inquired over their origins, and Megan had been curious as well (since she was forbidden from reading minds to satisfy her curiosity) and asked the blue eyed boy sifting through the pages for that night's dinner. Thus learning that Ted had only ever eaten such foods during the time with the blond haired woman Doctor Hallo. Though it hadn't been painfully obvious, Megan had been more polite towards Ted after she had learned of whom she had been previously living with.

"S-she-" Megan had stuttered for a moment, "…used to live with her therapist?" The word had been said as if it were a curse word, whether it was out of surprise or whether fear could be debated.

Kaldur peered up from the cookbook; the recipe was one that involved chicken, sweet potatoes and an assortment of vegetables. On the other page was a dish with various slices of fish and spices that he had never heard of. Superboy, who had froze in-between flipping pages, was now wearing what Bart had deemed his 'disappoint face' that was his regular scowl.

"…Yea, What's wrong with that? I used to live with them."

Which wasn't a lie.

"Why was she living with her therapist?"

Superboy, for the life of him (which hadn't been that long) couldn't find the right answer for her question. He didn't know why Ted was living with Doctor Hallo, and when Superboy had asked Hallo had only said one thing.

"… She doesn't have anyone else." Before you came here Superboy. At first, he had been apprehensive about Hallo's comment, but it didn't deter the sleeping arrangements that they shared. One night he tried to sleep in his own bed, the night after Bart left, but he was been awakened when Ted had started her day at nearly four that morning wearing two layers of clothing in the spring time.

"What about her parents? She has family somewhere right?"

"I don't know. She never brings them up."

"Megan," Kaldur intervened, "Maybe we shouldn't be talking about this. If she wanted us to know, she would have told us." Kaldur was tapping a foot against the floor, something he did when he was nervous or uncomfortable. "Where is Ted anyway?"

"She said she was in the library studying. Batman has her taking this test every month to make sure she's on top of everything."

Ted had been in the library for nearly two days straight now. Only coming out to stretch her legs and remind herself that there was a world outside her room of books. Normally, it was Ted that made dinner (Superboy and Megan would help of course) but she refused to put down the new volume that Batman had given her that wasn't even out on the bookshelves yet. The 'contract' as Ted explained once to Superboy, stated that she had to pass each test designed and given to her or else she would be removed (by will or by force) from Young Justice. Where she would be placed she didn't say. Maybe she didn't know.

"What about this?" Kaldur pointed to the seafood dish.

Superboy took a glance at it.

"… We need to make a trip to town."

Kaldur had volunteered to retrieve Ted from her makeshift cave from the outside world as Superboy made up the list. The library was a spot he would often find Ted, who would sit curled up on the couch surrounded by books she had read nearly a dozen times in the last few hours. He couldn't understand why she would do such a thing (he had been told it would stress you to do such a thing) but had marveled at the stack of books that was taller then Ted that she had just finished.

Kaldur would admit he had a firm respect of her frightening level of intelligence.

Now the sight that greeted his eyes was that of dimmed lights and a lone foot that hanged off the couch. Ted walked around the base with her shoes on, just in case she wanted to go outside and she wouldn't have the waste time trying to find her room to get her shoes. Around the couch was what would be called a fortress of books, blocking the view to Ted. "Teddy?" He called out gently, not wanted to send the girl into a mild panic. There was a slight groan from the couch, and shuffle of movement and the foot suddenly launched into the air. Kaldur approached with caution, peering over the top of the couch and down to the brown haired girl with the green eyes.

She was just yawned, stretching out her limps, her arms reaching behind her head and her legs shaking from the effort the loosen them. Her hair was skewed and her eyes were glazed over from her nap. "Good to see you are still apart of the living." The girl on the couch pulled herself up to sit correctly. She was still rolling her shoulders and shivering as she stretched and was currently lost in the loving burn that was her loosening muscle. The audible popping of her shoulders and spine was always such a nice feeling. "Yes that's always such a nice thought."

Apart of the living that is. Had Kaldur known of her origins, Ted doubted that he would ever say such a thing.

Kaldur was still standing behind the couch, leaning over the side with a small smile. "What time is it?" Ted asked, looking around seeing all the books she had barricaded herself inside of. "It's nearly five in the afternoon. You have been here for quite some time now. We were going out to get supplies for tonight's dinner. Thought you would like to accompany us."

"Outside sounds good." Ted moved to stand; her feet felt cold, she must have kicked off her shoes before her little nap. "Outside sounds really good."

Megan, a strange event, had been invited to dinner at her uncles' home (where ever it was) and her exit had been one of excitement and joy of 'home cooked food from Mars' and her exit was quick. She had enough time to inform Superboy of her new arrangement so their shopping had just gotten smaller. Then just as Ted came down the stairs, the mainframe had turned to life with Batman on screen. Doctor Hallo was requesting (an order from Batman) to meet with Superboy outside of Mount Justice and Superboy (after a whole hour of yelling and words that Ted hadn't been introduced to until now) could only stamp his way into the warp gate. The computer had announced his departure leaving only Kaldur and Ted. The Red Tornado was else where and Ted could not remember where he was. Members had been called into action earlier that day to assist into a landslide in the eastern country.

Ted was standing outside the 'front door' as it was dubbed by Megan, feeling the new and awkward tension. She and Kaldur had never officially met before this moment. Still, with Superboy, Megan and Red Tornado gone, it would leave Ted alone and to her own design, if one were to excuse the phrase. The teen was taller than her of course, but she would not deny that the air around him was soft and friendly. Not like anything that Superboy when she had first met him.

"Are you leaving too?" though Ted didn't want to be alone, it didn't matter because she still needed to make a trip into town for dinner. Not to mention she needed to get eggs and milk. They had run out that morning. Kaldur had blue eyes like Superboy had, Ted observed the taller, but his were a lighter blue. Calmer and more approachable than Superboy.

"I am not needed anywhere." He said, she had noticed that his speech pattern was always more polite and more, how should she word this, educated then the looser pattern of speech that Bart and Robin shared. She had also noticed that lack of contractions in his sentences.

"So I do believe that I will be joining you for dinner."

For some reason, Ted felt her cheeks heat up and she had to look away.

* * *

_MEETINGS WITH THE HIGHER AUTHORITY had never been Superboy's strongest abilities to manage with._ However, it was the kind Doctor Hallo that had requested to meet with him just outside of the city. They met at a tiny little highway diner called Star Diner but the 'S' lights must have died long before his arrival. On the clean table that smelt of disgusting chemicals (he doubted anyone else could smell them) was a slice of something he had never encountered. Hallo said it was called Apple Pie. Upon the first bite, he immediately thought of the apple scented shampoo that Ted had in her bathroom, and how the warm scent would grace his being as she walked out of the steam.

The golden blond woman was sitting in her civilian clothes, and Superboy couldn't spot any other member of the Justice League. "It's alright Superboy. We're the only ones here. I made damn sure of it."

He put down the fork. "What's wrong?" He didn't want to be here for very long. He needed to help with dinner tonight.

"I wanted to talk about the attack with Mister Twister. More about the first encounter. When Miss Martians plane was brought down by external forces. Was Teddy with you at the time?"

"Yea, she was on the ship. I didn't know she was so scared of heights."

"Yes. She's had a few… situations dealing with heights. What happened?"

"I told her everything would be alright. I couldn't stand the smell."

"Smell?"

"I don't know how to describe it," he leaned his head into his hands, recalling the stench, "Bitter and stale. It was coming from Ted. She was really afraid."

"The stench of fear."

"Yea…"

He picked up a fork-full of the pie he was given to give himself a reason from opening his mouth.

"She wasn't harmed was she?" Hallo had this expression on her face she didn't normally have. Superboy hadn't known her for very long but each time he saw her she was more carefree and relaxed. At the moment, she was hunched over the table with her head in her heads, her shoulders bunched and tense. The smell of fear wasn't as strong as it was on the ship, but the sweetness of the apple was rotting in his mouth and he had to swallow down the pie before he could taste the fear-rot.

"…No. I was close enough too catch her."

"And she's taking her medication?"

"… 'medication'?"

He didn't know why Ted was living with Doctor Hallo.

Not once had Superboy seen the girl take any sort of 'medicine'. "I've never seen her take anything. Why is she taking medication? Medication for what?"

For some reason, Superboy went back to where he had first met Red Tornado. "On second thought, Megan and Superboy show them around. I have something that needs my attention." Ted was turning away. "I'll come with you." He said down at her, but she stopped and there was a ringing in his ears that was coming from the little female before him. "No Superboy, you show the others around the base. We would get lost if I tried." Then she turned around, the ringing still ringing, like a madman playing a drum. Ba-Bump Ba-Bump Ba-Bump Ba-BumpBa-Bump Ba-Bump Ba-Bump Ba-Bump-

For the rest of the tour, he had to strain over Megan's voice to hear that ringing. A few minutes later.

Ba-Bump Bump Ba-Bump Bump

Calm, the ringing had stopped and it was replaced with that same song he would hear at night. He was enjoying it until Megan had tried to talk telepathically.

Hallo returned him a sigh, one that he couldn't really relate to any sort of feeling but he saw the drop of the shoulders that he witnessed Superman do before speaking (less then a minute) with him on their first night meeting each other. Disappointment? Shame?

Relief?

"As long as she takes that medicine," she started her smiling thing again, her eyes not reaching her lips, "There won't be a thing to worry about."

* * *

Ted was delighted to find that Kaldur was more of a conversationalist than Superboy during their shopping trip. She wasn't rewarded with awkward glances or the stoic expressions that he normally splayed upon his face. Very rarely had Ted seen the other blue eyed boy turn his lips and actually enjoy something. Why, Ted simply couldn't find an answer, as much as she would hate herself for asking herself this but she often wondered if clones felt that joy, that feeling of lightness in her stomach whenever she found that Robin would be attending dinner. Did he feel that, or was he void?

Kaldur however didn't look at her funny when she asked what a shark was. A 'Shark' was a predatory fish, Kaldur explained, fierce and brave and made excellent animals to ride into battle with.

"You have never seen a shark?" Kaldur was picking through the spices as Ted was on the opposite shelf looking at canned products. "Not on TV? Movies? Aquariums?" Ted turned on heel with a red plastic basket hanging from her elbow, placing in a can of organic broth, "What's an 'aquarium'? Is that a book or… uh…" Kaldur now had that awkward expression meaning that she had missed the message entirely. "…thing…" Kaldur dropped the needed spices for the dish into the basket. Again, ashamed of herself for her lack of knowledge of things outside the library given to her by Dr. Hallo. Suddenly, his bare feet (he had a pair of sandals on to get into the store he pulled out from his pack) seemed a lot more interesting for some reason.

"You lived with Dr. Hallo correct?" She only gave a nod, "She's never taken you to museums or aquariums?"

"The only place she's taken me too was the book store and eventually the little shopping center. I never really watched TV, not a lot of movies. Most of what I watch for for educational purposes."

Kaldur remembered that Superboy said she didn't have anyone else. No family? No friends other than the good doctor Hallo? Kaldur had observed how close Superboy and Ted seemed to be. When Ted was reading on the couch, sometimes Superboy would be using her leg or stomach as his personal pillow. Other times, they would simply be talking about something. Nothing important, but it was impossibly more then Superboy had ever spoke with then any other member of Young Justice, it could only make a man wonder if there was something between them.

How innocent was Ted Hallo to the rest of the world?

As the said girl bent forward to look over the slices of fish behind the glass, Kaldur began to put pieces together within his minds eye. Superboy and Ted couldn't have been in relations with each other, not like the boy-friend/girl-friend relationship that he was thinking of. No. If anything from the evidence put before him, Superboy was more like a guard-dog towards Ted.

Unless he had gotten permission from Doctor Hallo (as she was Ted's guardian) to court Ted. Kaldur wouldn't rule this out either.

A new light was introduced to Kaldur now, one of which he found himself embarrassed over. Ted was wearing those high heeled boots she was so fond of, the dark jeans that hugged like a second skin and a long sleeved shirt that didn't hide the delicate nature that could only be associated with that of a flowering woman. Hair short, and strands often caught at the corners of her lips and those expressive green eyes could do nothing but compliment her brown hair and fair skin. He had no doubt that in a few years of maturing, Ted would be like doctor Hallo. Like Hallo.

"Excuse my intruding," Ted turned her head over her shoulder look at him, "But are you and Hallo related? Is she your mother?" Those expressive green eyes turned away from him.

There was once upon a time where Ted had everything, and there was once a time where Ted had nothing. She morned for a family that never existed and the only possible father figure she had was never interested in her. The home base was once all she knew and there were times with doctor Hallo that Ted wished she was back at the Home Base. Where everything was familiar and she could have some sort of normalcy in the lie that was Home Base. Stumped, Ted wasn't sure how to answer his question without raising further questions of the term 'family'.

"We're not related," Ted was not about to lie, but nor would she tell the truth. "But I wish we were."

The only female members of the Home Base Ted had interacted with were the maids, the nurses, and a majority of that time had been with Hallo. It didn't hurt to think of such things now, nor did the sting make itself known that in reality she was the product of theft from other, real families. Often, Ted wondered was it would be like to be apart of a productive family setting, not just herself and Hallo, but with a mother, a father, and maybe siblings. Megan often spoke that she had twelve sisters back on Mars and the strange tales of them would come up when Megan was reminded of this time or of that time and Ted could not join in conversation.

"... I apologize if I brought up something personal."

"It's alright," Ted saw the sad eyes that she did not associate with Kaldur, and so she used her own eyes to brighten his, "There's nothing wrong with curiosity. I'm a little curious myself, are you related to Aquaman?" They did not look related but through her studies she had learned that genetics could be deceiving.

"No, we are not." he said, finally that normal smile had reached his face and Ted could only answer with her own.

With the gold card given to Ted by Batman himself, everything was paid for and once again Ted found herself trying to get Kaldur to allow her another bag. She held one while Kaldur held three. It only took a few minutes of convincing but she was finally allowed to hold another bag and finally equaling the load. The trek back to home wasn't as quiet as it would have been with Superboy, but she had asked Kaldur what it would be like if she had ever went to an aquarium. He described countless colors of reefs and almost bizarre forms of fish and sharks and even aquatic animals.

"Do they have sharks?"

"Most aquariums do."

"I wonder if Star City has one," she thought out loud, "It sounds exciting."

Once again, Ted felt that same alien feeling that could only be described as 'childish'.

* * *

_STRANGE AFFAIRS OF YOUNG JUSTICE had always been around dinner time and so tonight was no different._ Superboy was not returning for the night, Batman had given a message via-voice-mail informing the 'residents of Mount Justice' that Superboy would be undergoing a series of tests. Ted did not investigate further, only waiting for the cold night that was too come. Kaldur was good with cooking fish, as Ted was delighted to find that she wouldn't need to make a full dinner for three or four people again, and she honestly wasn't good with cooking delicate meats like seafood. As Ted held yet another fest of question and answer, she took notice of the thin veil of flesh between his forefingers and thumbs.

"I'm sorry," she felt the need to apologize, "I've never seen that before. Do you feel it? The webbing in your hands?"

"They are sensitive to temperature changes." Kaldur confessed, moving the fish to another part of the frying pan. "I do feel them. They help me control my speed and steering while underwater."

Ted could only imagine what such a thing could feel like. The green eyed girl recalled the memory of the days spent in the little cottage in the woods. When she left the safety of the little house and Robin and she found the running stream. It wasn't very deep, but it was her first experience with what Robin had called 'Nature', to be more exact, a stream. The cold water had at first been a shock, and the smell of the water was far different from the filtered water in the Home Base that she drank and bathed in. The current was not strong, but it was gentle, and it carried the strangest of things within its shallow depths that Ted had begged Robin to put to name before she was walked away from the stream. She had never felt 'sand' before that time. She wondered if that feeling was intensified if she were in the oceans.

In the back of her head, she couldn't ignore the tickling sensation that she couldn't put a name too.

"Does everyone have this webbing where you're from?" Ted wondered if she had over stepped a boundary just now, asking if she was unique or if he was common felt a bad-sort of strange to her. "If you don't mind me asking that is."

"Most people in my home do." Kaldur informed, dropping the spices that Ted had chopped prior to cooking that fish. "It is a trait more common in men then it is a women. Women are more slender, more agile so they move through the currents more easily. What about you Ted, I do not mean to interfere with personal affairs but why do you live with doctor Hallo, and not with your parents?"

A Mother. A pair of siblings. A family she morned for, for three years. They died, her father, the mad Doctor Stein told her. Feeding her lies and she ate them like sweets. Anything to fill the cup that was half empty, but this cup was cracked but slowly filling in the cracks. Her green eyes looked down at her reflection in her coffee cup. The light brown liquid, sweetened, steamed and the smell of vanilla and hazelnut wafted her senses.

What was my mother like? She often asked him.

Which one are you talking about? He was answer her. She never fully understood what he meant.

"... I'm not sure how to explain it." she said to his wistfully, she hadn't told Superboy, and Robin was the only person within the ranks of Young Justice that knew of her. "Hallo is like my... mother, but at the same time I know she's not my real mother. I can't say that I'm an orphan, because I knew my father and my father knows of me." Keep things vague. Keep them shrouded without the lies and tales of murder. "I lived with her because she was the only one who wanted me."

"...I over heard Bart saying something about a mark." Ted didn't lift her gaze, "Is it... bad?"

For a tiny moment, Ted was ignorant of what he was describing. For the next tiny little moment, Ted was almost ashamed. That day that set off everything, putting an end to everything that she knew and opened the world was the day she undressed in the mirror room. Her spinal cord, the skin over it was now a light pink but the dots parallel to it were still red. She often wore turtlenecks, not only because of the lower temperature within the mountain base, but also to cover up the evidence of twelve girls murdered. The evidence of twelve girls that stood before them day by day.

She still had dreams of them surrounding her, and taking back what was theirs.

"...It's a horrid thing I bare, but I've learned much from it."

She had read, in novelas, that scars were often seen as proof that someone did something right, or they had done something wrong. The victim, and the criminal both shared these scars, but in the manner that they wore were polar extremes. The criminal did not bare physical scars (most of the time) but instead remembered the scars enforced on others. Shamefull things that they could not carry, and so forced them upon others. The victim of the crime did not show them with shame, did not hide them (again, most of the time) and in the back of their little minds knew that one day those scars would be too much for them and they would have to come out with the truth. Because the truth will set you free. Badges of honor, Ted could not put down the book, beautiful and ugly reminders of past events.

Evidence that they had lived. Survived. A Badge of Honor.

Without that mark, and she internally thanked Voice, Ted would have never left the Home Base. She would have stayed that stupid little lab experiment, The Enigma Design without a purpose or reason. Kaldur had paused his cooking. His pale blue eyes looked and met with the sight of Ted looking down into her cup of coffee. The female of the two, wasn't wearing a little frown and nor did he hint of anything uncomfortable or depressed. Instead, those lips were curled gently, as if recalling a soft and happy memory, and her shoulders were relaxed and her whole body language said Relief.

"...I've learned a lot."

The one thing, Ted had realized, they she owned completely.

Ted remembered the day she first felt the warm glow of the sunlight. How the smell of what was now identified as 'flowers' and how non-clinical the air tasted. The grass was so much softer then the tile, or wood floors of the Home Base. Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty free at last. Voice had sang with such joy that Ted couldn't stop herself from joining in. The warm glow, free from the cold and dark Home Base. Free at last. She had always thought she had her freedom, she was able to go about the Home Base as she pleased. The library of blank pages had never bothered her. The room of mirrors never looked strange. Nor did the strange amount of pictures of people she didn't know, but felt as though she knew them at one time, had ever bothered her. Ted had once had everything, and Ted had once had nothing.

The tickling sensation came back, and Ted couldn't help but allow the all too girly giggle escape her throat.

"... My Badge of Honor."


	4. Chapter 4

"_All men hate the wretched; how then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, they creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us."  
__-Mary Shelley, Frankenstein_

_

* * *

_

_SUNLIGHT, BRIGHT AND WARM AND BLINDING it glistened with near tear-inducing trauma to green eyes. _The bright Tuesday had not started off as warm as it was now. Superboy had not returned for three days since Kaldur and her dinner, and the nights were colder then she had ever remembered and more terrible then she had wished them too be. The dreams of the girls had come more and more often now. Sometimes yelling. Sometimes standing there and looking at them with defiant eyes, scornful and life threatening. Longer, and waking from these dreams were becoming harder and harder to do without someone there.

This bright Tuesday was almost as if other forces were conspiring against her current mood. The weather was slowly improving, or so Ted had watched on the morning weather channel as Superboy made a small batch of French toast. The bench still felt cold, and Ted could not feel the warm breeze but instead only the near frozen gloom as the man she waited for sat down, on the other side of the bench.

A man with cold eyes, whose eyes would almost never leave her while she sat at dinner with other members of the Enigma Project within the dinning hall of the Home Base. He looked almost strange without the lab coat, and he had cut his hair and a strange smell hung in the air from him. His cold eyes did not meet hers, but his lips were curled up in such a fashion that she did not try to stop the shiver that cascaded down her spine.

"My little daughter," he sighed, "You've grown. How much do you weigh now? Last I knew you were one-hundred-and-twenty-seven pounds. Hallo must be feeding you on a calorie based diet. Hasn't she?"

Ted did not answer him. Looking a head, a white letter gripped between her hands. She wondered if this 'meeting' was such a good idea. She had gotten the letter by a strange man in the fruit stand. He looked familiar, and he knew her name. She pictured him wearing a doctors lab coat and saw that it was one of the doctors she would have dinner with in the Home Base. He said "You know who this is from. Don't tell a soul now darling" and left the stand for the original owner to take over.

Ted didn't tell where she was going. Not Robin. Not Superboy. Not Kaldur. Not even the Justice League.

Why hadn't she told the Justice League that she was going to meet with a murderer, Ted wasn't so sure of now. It _almost_ looked like a good plan, meet with her father and get some answers and turn himself over peacefully with the fear of Batman looming over her shoulder. It was almost euphoric feeling to leave the safety of the mountain and the safety of the JLA. Now that feeling is gone, and only left being its dead fleeting children of let-down and post-doom.

"My tiny little daughter," he sighed again, "I am very pleased that you're healthy. Has the Justice League been good to you?"

"…They've been good."

"For you? Or for them? I was told that they wouldn't allow you into a public school."

"You know, public school really isn't all that it's cracked up to be." He sighed, "With teachers out to get you and other students' hell bent on making your life miserable, and _high school_ is just all of that even worse. I can't even imagine _why_ you would want to attend such a dirty and filthy place. Don't you watch any TV?"

Ted did not answer, if she did, she would only be repeating something that he _already_ knew. Stein was a man who would want to know everything about his subjects whether they are working for him or if he had made them. He was also a man who would never give a direct answer to a simple question in the belief that _nothing_ was truly that simple. Ted had often tried to have even the smallest of conversation with her father. Every time, she spoke in such a strange and queer sentence structure that she didn't believe it was a language.

_What was my mother like?_ She would ask him at dinner time when he was present. Hallo and the other doctors would be taking out notebooks but there was never a time when she thought this was strange. They had done that a lot and so it had become apart of what Ted had once thought was normal.

_Which one?_ Stein would answer. Ted could not ask any more questions because she knew if she did, Ted would not get what would be considered an answer. Resulting in Ted putting more distance between herself and Stein, as much as it had pained her back then.

"Why did you want to meet with me father?" Though everything this man had put her through she still called him father. "Why now?"

"Well it's almost your birthday and I thought 'What the hell why not' and so here we are."

"…My birthday isn't for a few months father."

"Really? Well maybe I just wanted to be nice."

"I know you're not a _nice man_."

"Indeed I'm not." He chuckled, "But then again I _did_ make you."

"Out of a series of murders."

"Technically, they weren't dead when they were…" Stein paused to find the correct term, "_Disbanded_ and put back together. I didn't _kill_ anyone."

Ted could recall a time when she fallowed Stein like a puppy would its owner. Watching him and wondering what he was doing. Being around him kept the nurses and their prodding instruments away from her person, if only for a moment. Stein had once been the light of Ted's little life. There was never a day where she didn't want to be with him, to learn and to show and hopefully impress how much she had learned from him. Stein always seemed to know what she was doing, at any time, and knew how much she knew. She could _never_ get him impressed about much of anything she tried to do. She had once performed one-hundred push-ups in ten minutes, Mr. Manners was _somewhat_ impressed but Stein always wore that grin, like he knew everything about anything you asked him about and he would always be that higher knowledge.

"But I didn't let anyone live. I couldn't allow it, if I did, the families of the girls would have banded _courageously_ together for a single purpose, and do you know what they would have done to you?" Stein's dark hair was tied back, she noticed, before it would have reached his mid back, but now it graced his shoulders like strands of ink. Bleak and terrible, she touched it once, and Stein had allowed it. The strands falling through her fingers, black and terrible. Bleak and terrible. As to his question, whatever those parents would have done, it would be bleak and terrible.

"The souls of those subjects wouldn't rest until their bodies were complete."

She dreamed about them taking what was theirs. Taking everything back and left only a blood stain that was once Ted.

"Their mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters would have torn you apart."

"…I know."

"Now answer me this, _would you let them_? If you answer right I'll give you some answers about yourself."

Would you let them? Would you let them? Would you let them? Would you let them tear you asunder? In her dreams, she would see herself begging them to leave her alone and stop touching her and tearing her, but there was no sound coming from her throat. Maybe that was already taken, because it was never hers to begin with. Unlike Superboy, he had _grown_ everything about him DNA was something that _could_ be stolen, but compared to an arm or an entire skeletal system, a strand of hair would easily be thrown into the breeze. Superboy owned everything that was his. Ted didn't. Superboy was a clone, therefore needing another DNA strand to make the clone embryo (or so she read) therefore it wasn't the Superman's complete DNA.

Superboy had a father, Superman had a son.

Ted had a monster, monster created monster.

"…I would let them."

"…Care to explain?"

"I'm not a person. I'm multiple, I'm _Us_. Those girls didn't have to die, and I would like to know that if I ever do die, those parts would be returned to their owners. These eyes are not mine." She looked at the palms of her hands, "These hands are not mine." Then her fingers racked through her hair, "Not even this hair is mine. One day, I'm going to give what once was theirs back to them."

Stein threw his head back and gave a hearty laughter, one that Ted didn't find amusing or flattering. "Oh how poetic!" He starts clapping his hands, "Bravo-bravo! _Bravo!_ Oh my stupid little girl," he used 'stupid' as an endearment, not insult, "My stupid little Ted. You really think they would _care_ if you _wanted_ to give your body for them? Oh no, they would not hear your words or your reason. They would throw you down and _take-take-take_ until you was nothing but a memory."

She dreamed about them taking what was theirs. Taking everything back and left only a blood stain that was once Ted.

"I would let them."

She was startled with a bundle of CD cases and a rather thick book was dropped unceremoniously into her lap.

"You might think that I'm giving you a purpose Ted. That our little meeting today would tell you that I _really did care_ about you and that I would turn myself over to the Justice League but _life_, as you don't know it, doesn't _work_ like that." He was standing before her now, tall, dark, bleak and terrible. "There are always flies on the walls and people working in the background." He learned forward, that grin or sinister smile never left his face. "Sometimes, things _appear_ that they have changed, _but in reality_ they haven't. Teddy," he sighed, almost sounding disappointed, "What will you do now if I told you the truth?"

His shadow was everywhere. Terrible. Horrible.

"Do you really think that you're free from the Home Base?"

* * *

Green eyes stared bleakly ahead of her. Watching, dimly aware of people passing and going, staying and leaving. Her father had left hours ago, and she still remained as if she were waiting for his return. _Do you really think you're free from the Home Base?_ Again and again and again, Stein was an echo within the walls of her mind. Voice had not returned, she had stayed silent as if she had finally died, Ted would often kid herself into thinking she would be taking a nap at the most inopportune times. _Do you really think you're free from the Home Base?_

_You lived with Dr. Hallo..._ Kaldur once asked her, and in her stupidity, she hadn't thought twice about it._ She's never taken you to museums or aquariums?_

Ted took a quick inhale, a shaky breath and it should have calmed her. The weight in her hands was like grim reminder of her deed, one that she _should_ have informed the League about, or _at least_ Robin. She had remained on the bench, and now the blinding light was slowing drifting into the soft glow of dusk. A horrible action, Ted decided, one that cannot be over looked or hidden away. The Batman was the Greatest Detective of all time, as Ted learned from articles and news reports that Hallo would leave on (Hallo left the TV on that day, how could Ted not see it) and Ted knew that there wasn't any way that Batman could not overlook her absence from the Sanctuary.

She was scared to return, fearful of the repercussions of her actions and didn't want to think about what he would do to punish her. Ted remembered when she had walked out of the house to buy a book without tell Hallo where she was going. She had been gone from the house for more than an hour as she stopped by the café to purchase a hot, foamy drink Hallo was fond of. Hallo had been waiting on the porch with a stern look that could have rivaled Mr. Manners when she had performed a less-than satisfactory workout. She had been confined to her room for two days without TV, and her books.

What would the Batman do?

What would the Superman do?

_Do you really think you're free from the Home Base?_

The sun had set, and the breeze was more chilling as darker clouds rolled in, but it wasn't as chilling as the images within Ted's mind. She was afraid. This could not be ignored or attempted to cover up, he would know she was lying at an instant and she had read that covering things up would make everything worse. Robert Stein, a man who she called her father, had never really punished her. Never used much measure of discipline but taught everything she knew. For the first year of her life, Robert was everything she knew. She stayed with him and asked him questions that he rarely answered straight and she stayed with him through medical checkups and it was easy to speak to him rather then the faceless nurses. _Do you really think you're free from the Home Base?_

_What will you do now if I told you the truth?_

She was afraid; Ted was so scared that her stomach threatened to reveal her lunch and breathing became something of a chore. Breathe was shaky and cold, and her skin felt like pin-pricks. She shouldn't have come here, this was a terrible idea.

_Do you really think you're free from the Home Base?_

_Do you really think you're free from the Home Base?_

_Do you really think you're free from the Home Base?_

"… thank you."

* * *

_ABSENSE OF A TEAM MATE had bothered Kaldur more so than he had thought. _Ted had been missing since lunch, and upon further investigation he found that she was nowhere within the base, even Superboy didn't know where she was. Megan did a quick mental scan, and Ted had been far because she was outside of Megan's telepathic range. It had started to rain harshly outside, and weather reports stated there would be a severe thunderstorm warning in act until the next morning. High speed winds coupled with sea-side wave height had not given the comfort of mind that Ted was alright outside.

"You seriously mean she's _out of the base_?" Superboy seemed to have a hard time believing such a story because it was widely know that Ted didn't have a sense of direction. "She never goes anywhere alone."

"I know Superboy." Kaldur agreed, Ted was scared to go into places alone. "But I can't find her anywhere in the base. I thought you might know where she went. Why did she sneak off like that?"

The two males were side by side with each other, heading towards the back gate where it would lead into the thin spread of trees and woods and then into the city. "This isn't like her." Superboy said. "She must have had a reason."

Kaldur gave him a side glance, Ted had Superboy had a closer relationship that he often put into question. The two were like a pair, almost always together and sometimes they weren't talking. Simply enjoying the company of the other. As of now, Superboy was wearing his usual naked expressive look, wearing what was identified as worry and anger. Why _hadn't _Ted say something to Superboy? Why was Superboy upset?

"Can I ask you something Superboy?" When Kaldur received no audible answer, he decided to take the chance and continue, "…I have been wondering, is there something… _between_ you and Ted?" What was it? Kaldur asked himself, what was it that made Superboy and Ted act like magnets towards the other? Honest to himself, it had been a question that had been bothering Kaldur. He couldn't see what it was, and as far as Kaldur knew, Superboy knew as much of Ted as Kaldur himself knew.

"Of course there is," Superboy stated, taking long strides towards the hall, "We're friends. Friends talk to each other right?"

Kaldur nodded, unsure of how to continue; clearly Superboy was missing the over all question.

Kaldur turned to walk, briskly, into the main hall where the large monitor sat and the transport gate waited for the next arrival. The hall was empty, except for the _drip-drip-drip_ of water that fell from the presumably missing Ted. Her heels clicked rather softly, almost soundless, against the hard floor. She was soaked, she wasn't shivering but her head was bent forward and she was clutching a plastic bag hard and close to herself as if someone was going to come out of the dark and take them from her. Her hair was wet and was tussled from the wind, almost looked black now, and she was paler than ever. She didn't formally acknowledge them as they entered but Kaldur found his throat choked by the look on her face.

_Defeated._

_Beaten._

_Woe._

"Teddy!" Superboy gasped, he rushed up to her, she didn't do anything, didn't look up or respond. "Where have you been!" Ted did not respond. Superboy didn't look very worried now; instead he was allowing his frustration to peek its ugly head, "_Where did you go_? Why didn't you _tell me _where you were going? What if-"

_Drip-drip-drip_ went the raindrops and the teardrops. "…Teddy?"

Superboy moved closer to the female of the three, she was now starting to shiver; Kaldur's gills had scented what he knew as fear and distress. Bitter, tasting like cold and dead algae from the depths of a contaminated sea. Distress was also cold, and it was the bitter sweetness of distress that always attracted the predators and hunters to the wounded and fallen. Ted was not injured, but Ted was injured. Not in pain but hurting. Bleeding and not bleeding. Superboy must have smelled the cold scent because he was suddenly taking in deeper breathes and Ted's knees were shivering violently.

_Drip-drip-drip_ went the raindrops and the teardrops.

Kaldur watched helplessly, Superboy moved even closer to the shaking figure and bent slightly forward. Arms coiled with lean muscle with the strength to bend any metal on or off Earth were gentle when they scoped Ted off the ground slowly. She hung her head over Superboy's shoulder as the said male was holding her thighs close to his lower stomach. Ted did not let go of the plastic bags. She was still dripping with water, the dampness of the air mixed with the salt of the rain and the tears reminded Kaldur of the world outside, of the world that some were innocent of and should retain such innocence. Superboy gave the atlantian a look that said 'Do Not Fallow' and the image of the guard dog came back to Kaldur.

The clone began his walk to Ted's room, whispering things that he would only say to Ted in the only tone Ted had the honor of hearing. "Everything is going to be alright. Everything is alright now." His voice low and gentle, any anger he had felt was gone but the smell of defeat and distress perfumed the air with its horrible stench. "Everything is alright now."

_Drip-drip-drip_ went the raindrops and the teardrops.

Kaldur was left alone in the main hall with the transporters. The one nearest him began to hum to life and the computer informed through its speakers; "Recognized. Robin." And walking through the light was the said hero; in his uniform rather then his street clothes. "Hey there," Robin greeted rather cheerily, sometimes Kaldur forgot that the human senses were not as sensitive as his own or Superboy's. "Batman wanted to make sure that the power generator was still running. This storm has half the city without power. Why is there water in here? Is there a leak?"

"No, we do not have a leak." Kaldur sighed; the depression in the air was starting to get to him. "We had a false alarm."

"False alarm?"

"Not _that_ kind of false alarm."

"What happened?"

"…Ted went missing earlier and she had gotten caught in the rain."

Suddenly, the taste of the air went rancid.

"Recognized. Batman."

Kaldur could still hear the _Drip-drip-drip_ of the raindrops and smell the salt of the teardrops in the distance.

__

_

* * *

_

SUPERBOY CARRIED THE SILENT AND WEEPING weight as one would carry a drenched kitten.

Gently and warmly. He couldn't tell if his words were offering any sort of comfort but she had stopped shivering. Ted had not spoken a word, she only clutched the plastic bag closer and closer and Superboy was sure her rubs must have been in pain under the pressure. He set her down gently on her feet, holding her shoulders for moment to be sure she wouldn't collapse and went to their shared bathroom for a towel. He immediately went for the largest and fluffiest, which was a pink towel, and came back quicker than he had left. He chose it wiser to keep his mouth shut as he gently wrapped the small woman in a cocoon and he didn't try to ask her to place the bag down. He rubbed her arms to work some warmth into her body, under his hands she felt cold as ice.

"…What were you doing out there Ted?"

She would often speak to him gently, and he was amazed and ashamed on how quickly he would fall to that gentle voice. He looked down at the tiny figure, she looked smaller when she was wet and her clothes stuck to her like a second skin. Ted did not lift her dark haired head and she didn't do much more then take a shaking breath. Superboy had seen her take her pill that morning, so whatever 'illness' she had was not currently the criminal that was causing Ted not to respond.

So he crouched down, enough to look at Ted's face and saw that she had stopped crying. Her lips were a light blue, but she was starting to shiver now and Superboy took this as a good thing. "Teddy?" He tried again, and once again he had failed. Ted was still not responding. Whatever turmoil she was going through right now was captivating her entirely. She did not respond to him, and not to Kaldur. He could feel the water through the towel and knew that she must have been out in the rain longer then what would be deemed healthy.

"I'll get you come dry clothes," he stated gently, "Can you take off those wet ones? No one here wants you to get sick."

Ted did not respond verbally, but her shaking hands placed the bag on the floor in a puddle of water that she made and without little to any hesitation she began to strip herself of the wet clothes. The cloth had to be peeled from her person, and Superboy turned away to fetch new clothes. He yanked out her 'Love' shirt, a new bra, panties, a black pair of skinny jeans and ankle socks. Superboy placed everything on the bed for Ted to redress herself. She kept her back to him, and he bent low to get her wet clothes out of the way and dropped the towel to get the water on the floor. He had seen the marks, he wasn't sure if they were scars or not but dare not ask, and its color was off by miles. Normally it was pink, meaning she had it for a long time, but now it was getting closer and closer to a dead pink and if he leaned closer, which he did, he could see that there was a ling of black dead center with her spinal cord. He had never seen this black line, and he could not investigate it further when Ted pulled her 'Love' shirt over her head.

Though Ted didn't have his sense of smell, it was the strange, almost tasteless smell of gravel and city smog that he knew of only one person to have. It wasn't Robin, Robin had a warmer smell, it was the same but warmer. This taste and smell was cold and harsh and often made Superboy give the owner of this smell his complete attention. She must have sent the shadow under the door. The Batman knocked on the door with four quick raps and the smell of dread and fear returned. Ted was shivering again, as she put her socks on, and Superboy knew that she wouldn't be brave enough to answer her bedroom door. Afraid and ashamed.

So Superboy did the one thing he knew how to do, stand up and stand tall. He had pictured the Superman would have done with anything he came across. He stood in front of the source of fear, and the fearing person. He used the command key to open the door and he could _taste_ the panic behind him. In the hallway, the dark figure that was Batman stood taller than him, foreboding and gave no sense of hope that there was nothing wrong. It seemed that _everything_ was wrong.

"…_Ted_…" his voice growled and there was the unsaid threat of harm if he was denied what he already knew. Now the air stank of fear and salt. The Batman smelled of anger and frustration, he looked stiff and lucid at the same time and Superboy knew that it must have been directed at Ted for she had done something she shouldn't have. Behind him, Superboy could hear that Ted was trying to keep from sobbing; she was putting her shoes on, another pair of heeled boots. Then there was a rustle of the plastic bag.

"You _are_ coming with me."

It was all that Batman said and it was all that he needed to say. There wasn't a person alive, other than the Superman, which would deny the Batman of something he wanted done or have someone else do. His order was stronger than law and in a sense of word his orders _was_ law. The tiny girl fallowed the dark figure as a dead person would fallow the reaper. Superboy fallowed them to the command room, and could only watch with helpless dread when Ted was wrapped away to another unknown location away from the safety and security offered in Mount Justice. Away from the safety and security that was him.

Away from Superboy.

* * *

_CHILDREN WOULD CRY when their peers were angry and steaming and they knew that it was towards them._ Ted was wrapped to a place that was unfamiliar and unknown and it was dark but brightly lit. There were no windows and there were no mirrors. She debated whether or not she should explain to Batman her sides of why she had met Robert Stein without the permission and without telling the League but all debates were crushed when she was forced to sit in a lonely chair in what seemed like a pit. There was only one single light on her, and then on the raised stands lined with chairs with their own individual lights. Ted was alone again. Batman had left, but only for a minute or so before he had returned.

He returned with members of the League, Superman and Batman in the center of the eight members. She didn't want to think about what he would do to punish her. Ted remembered when she had walked out of the house to buy a book without tell Hallo where she was going. She had been gone from the house for more than an hour as she stopped by the café to purchase a hot, foamy drink Hallo was fond of. Hallo had been waiting on the porch with a stern look that could have rivaled Mr. Manners when she had performed a less-than satisfactory workout. She had been confined to her room for two days without TV, and her books.

What would the Batman do?

What would the Superman do?

_Do you really think you're free from the Home Base?_

She tried in vain to find a kind face, but as it would seem _everyone_ was angry with her actions. Hallo was not present, and Ted wondered if she was just too disgusted with her to even _look_ at her. Hallo had been the one to free her, and it was Ted that went back to the man that had her locked away.

"Ted Hallo." Superman's voice was a booming force that vibrated through her chest and shook everything that made her, "Between the hours of one PM, and eight PM, you were announced to be outside of the base inside Mount Justice without any active members of Young Justice. Is this true?" His voice offered nothing similar to mercy. She didn't have a chance.

"…It's true."

_It shouldn't have happened like this!_ Inside herself she could feel Voice screaming and screaming and it was getting harder to hear the questions from the council. _Stupid and naive!_ "Whom did you go to meet?" _You should have told them!_

"I went to go meet with my father." Ted found something close to safety by starring ahead of herself at the symbol of the JLA. It did not scowl at her, nor did it scorn her or sneer. It ignored her, and it gave nothing and took nothing. Possibly the only neutral thing she could bare to look at. "I went to see Robert Stein."

"How did you get in contact of Robert Stein?"

"I was shopping, getting things for dinner when a vendor man gave me a letter and told me not to tell anyone anything. He said I knew who it was from and then he disappeared." _Stupid child!_ "They letter told me of a meeting place and date and it was signed D.S."

"Why did you _not_ inform the league of this meeting?"

"I-I thought that if… If I met with him. And got to talk to him, that maybe I could convince him to turn himself in."

Funny, Ted thought, when she had first met Robin, _turn yourself in_ was one the first thing he had said to her. If one wanted forgiveness, they would confess to what they had done, and all would be alright. So she thought that if she convinced her father to do such, then _maybe_ she would have her father back. That maybe she would have something close to a family. She would not lie and say it wasn't nice to see him, because it was nice to see her father once again. Knowing that he was alive and knowing that maybe one day they could talk to each other without the cryptic phrases and hidden knowledge.

She could feel that members thought she was stupid, Voice was calling her that now, _Stupid child! Naïve child!_ Again and again in repetition. She could feel them looking at her with the same faces as doctors would back at the Home Base. With unguarded disappointment and unmasked frustration. All of it her fault, none of it was their fault.

"Regardless of your intentions you know that meeting and even being in contact of the fugitive Robert Stein is a violation of the contract both you and your guardian Doctor Hallo agreed to sign." Batman's voice seemed louder than that of Superman's. "You did not directly contact Robert Stein but the point is that you _still_ met at the specified date and location without backup or defense."

"I must inform this council that Ted is a specialist in hand to hand combat. She is more than able to handle Stein in a one-on-one. I will also mention her striking knowledge of medical data that would also help her in combat with an enemy." This was possibly the first time Wonder Woman said something in her defense. Superman fallowed, "That maybe true but the point remains that Ted went to this meeting alone."

"The _point _of this meeting is addressing the fact that Ted was in contact with Stein. It doesn't matter if she went alone and should not be taken into consideration in the judgment of this case."

The rest of the council gave murmurs to each other, all of them keeping their voice low as such she wouldn't hear them. What were they talking about? No doubt her stupid mistake. There were harsh words between Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman and they called a quick ten minute recess. Ted was too remain where she was until further notice. She hoped they would not forget she was sitting there. Ted did not look away from the symbol before her. She had never known the league to be such a frightening thing. It was horrible and she had caused this torture to continue. They were angry that Ted had met with him, they were angry because she had left the mountain and left any sort of device behind to meet with him. Outside interference. Outside of their control.

Outside of the controlled environment.

_Do you really think you're free from the Home Base?_

She bent forward and rested her forehead on her knees and laced her fingers through her hair.

"… I thought I was…"

* * *

_RECESS HAD ENDED VIOLENTLY and between the forces of the top three members of the League there were no chances of them settling down._ That had been hours ago. Ted was escorted out of the meeting chamber and placed in a room with two chairs single chair and a single steel table that had a belt looping over the surface of it. She didn't want to know what it was there for. The room was white, white tile floor and smooth white walls and all at once Ted felt like she was inside the Home Base again. All she needed now was the white pajamas and she would be Home Based again. This was a terrible room.

She starred ahead at a single door. There was no handle on this door but she knew the outline and knew that it _was_ an exit. She felt small, and at the same time too large for this room. The walls felt like they were breathing, closing in on her, and then expanding. Testing her and teasing her. This was indeed a terrible room and she wanted, _needed_, to get out.

_Do you really think you're free from the Home Base?_

… Is this is the Home Base?

Unbeknownst to the Design in the white room, Wonder Woman, Superman, and Batman were standing before a set of monitors of different perspectives of the girl in the single white chair in the little white room. Wonder Woman had stated in the meeting in hushed tones that she has had _enough_ of the attitude towards the small female. Lately, Batman and Superman have been rather distant towards her and it was starting to become a problem towards their judgment.

"We haven't been 'distant' as you claim," Superman tried, "And why are you putting this on us? We're here because she made contact with a murderer and mad scientist and didn't inform the League of her actions."

"I know what she did _Clark_, and honestly I'm not sure if we _should_ fault her for that. I've spoken to doctor Hallo, Ted stills views Stein as her father. She still thinks that there is some good in him. Even discovering what he had done she still cares about him." The Amazonian was fuming at this point, putting her in League Court like this, as if _she_ was the one who killed twelve people and sown them together. It was disgusting. "In Ted's mind, she's thinking of ways to prove herself that she can _help_ others without bothering others. So with this state of mind she put herself in danger, which is apart of the Young Justice Contract she and Hallo signed, and met with Stein."

"I stand on my decision. She is to be taken out of Young Justice," Batman growled, "And placed in a psychiatric ward to determine if she _is_ capable of being around others."

"See!" She barked, "This is what I'm talking about! You want to take her away and lock her up! No! Let me finish Clark!" Superman had opened his mouth to defend Batman, but enraging the woman before them wasn't wise. "Ted wanted to see her father! So she did! She's mentally a teenager and teenagers break rules! It's what they do! Regardless of Ted's origins and first impressions punishing her to that extent is inexcusable."

There was silence after the booming that was Wonder Woman. Batman stood firmer than Superman. It was clear that his choice of punishment wasn't going to budge but the shifting look on Superman said otherwise.

Inside the white room, Ted felt like she was slowly losing her mind. The walls were to bare, this wasn't home, but it could have been the Home Base. She was inside the Home Base again. Inside Home Base. _Home Base. Home Base!_ "…need to get out…" she whispered to herself, her chest felt like it was on fire. Burning and freezing. "…have to get out…" A cold sweat, paranoia, Voice kept saying that this was called claustrophobia. Voice kept saying to stay calm. _Stay calm and everything will be alright._

On the monitors, Ted was looking around the room and her mouth was moving calling out for someone. The speakers would pick up her voice; pathetically she called out 'I'm sorry! I thought I was doing something good! Please let me out! Let me out!' and she had even gotten up to explore the bare room. She was fingering the creases of the door. She wouldn't be able to open it, she didn't have the strength to overcome the air pressure that kept the door closed and forced it to open. "I agree that it was wrong for her to meet with Stein without the consent of the League, we all agree on that, but we still haven't heard the whole story."

She leaned forward, pressing a switch and the girl on the screen flinched when a crackle of a speaker turned to life. "Ted? Can you hear me?"

"_I can hear you. Wonder Woman?_"

"Yes. This is her speaking. I want you to tell me what happened when you met your father."

Ted was looked around, trying to find the speaker that was hidden away behind a false panel. "_Will you let me out if I do?_"

"I promise I will," she spoke gently, as if coaxing a frightened lamb closer to the butchers shop, "I want to know everything he said to you and what you said to him."

Ted was shivering, visible on the screen. She was still trying to claw her away out of the door. "_He said a lot of things. He knows, he knows._"

"What does he know?"

"_He knows I couldn't get into a public school. He knows that you wouldn't allow it. He started asking me strange things. Would I let the families of my donors tear me apart?_" The girl on the screen was starting to breath hard, scared, all three League members could see the signs of panic. "_I told him yes. Then he said that the families wouldn't care, they would 'throw me down and take-take-take' and I thought about a dream I've been having and I see my donors doing that. 'Throw me down and take-take-take'._"

As if it were some sort of comfort, she starting to hug herself and rub her arms to make some warmth. She started to walk around the table, looking down trying to calm herself down.

"_Then he said he didn't care about me and that he wasn't giving me a purpose still. Then he said that there were people working in the background. He said things looked like they changed but they didn't._"

Another step, another gasp.

"_What will you do now if I told you the truth. He said._"

Another step, another sob.

"_Do you really think you're free from the Home Base? He said. And then he gave me that bag full of stuff and I swear I didn't look through them! Now please! Open the door! Its like the Home Base here! I don't wanna go back there! Don't send me back!_"

Now the lamb was bleating pleas of release, begging and sobbing. Superman couldn't move, watching the horror unfold on the screen as Ted attacked the door in her panic.

Her fingers left trails of red.

* * *

_FREE AT LAST FREE AT LAST THANK GOD ALMIGHTY FREE AT LAST, it was the first phrase that Voice said when Ted laid out in the grass outside of the Home Base._ Now she was singing it joyfully when they were released from the white room and Wonder Woman was the first person they saw. The tall Amazonian led her away, leading the shaken child away from the source of fear and despair. She said Ted would be going back to Young Justice. She had also wrapped Ted's fingers with white bandages after she had skinned them trying to escape the room that looked like the Home Base. Ted couldn't look at her, feeling the shame of having another panic attack after so long. Hallo had been doing exercises with her, if Ted ever felt her heart rate increase it was getting harder to breath, she was supposed to close her eyes and count. Just keep counting. And Ted felt the shame of not remembering the lesson. Now the green eyed girl had been fitted with a strange device around her ankle, only an inch thick and it clamped around her ankle with a strange red light.

"It's a tracking device," Wonder Woman explained to her inquiries about the thing she was forced to wear, "For the next two weeks, you won't be allowed to leave Sanctuary. This will tell us if you leave the premises. You're free to walk around _inside_ the base, but nowhere else."

"But what if there's a mission? Would I be allowed?"

"No honey," Wonder Woman sighed, "Not until your two weeks are done."

Ted sighed, this was _much_ better then what she had been expecting, she had feared the worst and the worst had not come. Her hands felt like they were burning, and the pain felt well. Every time she twitched her fingers, the burning would return with a biting force and Ted was reminded that she wasn't in a 'disbanded' state.

One day, she would be 'disbanded', and until that day came everything that made TED Ted, would belong too Ted. Until that day.

"...Ted?" Wonder Woman asked for her attention and was granted, "You _left _that place, the Home Base. You know that right?"

Ted took a moment to study Wonder Woman. Hair as black as night, lovely blue eyes and full red lips. Girls on the television looked up too Wonder Woman as a role model for all women. Little girls would say to the camera that they loved Wonder Woman because she showed all other girls that they didn't have too be 'house wives' and had the power to defend their selves and others if need be. Ted had never understood this, what was so different between a man and a woman? She was looking down at her, at Ted, with those blue eyes that reminded Ted of doctor Hallo. Ted looked away, forcing her to tear away from familiar eyes.

"...I haven't thought so lately..." Wonder Woman made a gesture, a simple incline of her head for Ted to continue. "When my father-I mean Stein, asked me if I really thought I left the Home Base. It got me thinking. The more I thought about it, the scarier everything got."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean... Hallo used to tell me not to leave the house because I wasn't ready to be on my own. Stein used to never let me out of his sights. He used to fallow me with a pen and a notepad and I didn't think it was weird. All the nurses did that. Stein knew everything I was doing. Hallo knew everything I did at her house too. Home Base was a controlled environment. I think Hallos' house was too."

Her head felt fuzzy, and the burning in her hands reminded her where she was and where she _could_ have been. The taller lady with the long dark hair pulled her close, her hand rubbing gently to make heat and to calm still tense muscle. "Everything is going to be alright." She said down to Ted, but there was no feeling of comfort and there was something inside Ted that told her 'Nothing will be alright' and Ted could feel another shiver violently and Wonder Woman pulled her closer. "…I never left the Home Base…"

Ted started whispering to her the mantra over and over and Wonder Woman pulled her to her breast and rocked her gently. More sobs rocked the little body, and all Wonder Woman could do, as powerful as she was, could do nothing but offer "Everything is going to be alright." And when Superman quietly came into the space, was glared off and the look she sent him said clearly 'Get Away'. The man of steel left as quietly as he entered, and Ted sobbed until she was sure she wouldn't be able to cry for the rest of her life.

"…I never left the Home Base…"

Wonder Woman stayed by her side and acted as a Batman repellant. Outside of the Sanctuary, Wonder Woman gave her one last hug and told her she did _in fact_ leave the Home Base because she was _here_. Ted didn't know what she meant but at the time everything didn't make sense. Her head felt like a cotton ball, and her eyes hurt from crying, but in some strange sense she felt _better_ than before. Her hands burned, but it was a _good_ burn.

Upon her return, Ted found that she had been away for nearly a whole day and the first person to greet her return was Kaldur. There had been inquiries about anklet but Ted informed the team leader that she had done something wrong (she couldn't tell the whole story without telling the _whole_ story) and simply put it that it was League business and it would not affect the team performance but much of anything. It wasn't as if Ted _fought_ in battle, she could fight, she knew how to defend herself (she had managed to drug and knock out _Robin_ after all) but in a fight with a seasoned villain she didn't stand a chance. Superboy didn't say anything when she returned to their shared bedroom but made space for her to crawl in and he pulled her close.

The night with the League had been cold, but the feeling of ice from Superboy made Ted feel that nights alone in the Sanctuary were colder. Now the ice was melting and by midnight, Ted was gently disturbed by the strange purr that was Superboy. His hand was placed gently over her own; her fingers no longer burned but instead throbbed, caused by the weight over them. Ted wondered what the throbbing was, the pain in her fingers or was it Superboy's pulse?

Ted and Superboy slept until late into the next morning, neither were disturbed or sought out for and both were thankful for it. Superboy still hadn't asked anything when he passed her a pill from her bottle but leaned onto her shoulder as she swallowed the medication and water.

"…What happened?" Superboy finally asked, gently and almost softly but the natural deepness of his voice would never revoke that growl he had whenever he spoke. "Where did you go?"

"…I went and met with my father…" Ted would _never_ lie to Superboy because she knew he could see through her, she told him softly that she had to strain her own ears just to hear herself. "I had gotten a letter from him, after two years. He wanted to speak with me, and so I went."

"Your 'father'?"

"…yea…"

Superboy knew for a fact that rarely, and rarely was an understatement, did Ted ever speak of the man she called her father. Megan would talk about her family and 12 sisters back on Mars and sometimes Bart would talk about his family and his uncle and his mentor. Between Ted and Robin, family was a seldom topic they would venture and as if they were scared of something, avoided the topic whenever they could. It was when he was arguing with Kaldur about a shirt, there was a hand sign on it and Kaldur was trying to explain that it was a 'gang sign' and acted it out before him when his hearing, enhanced by the genes of the Superman, caught the words "She was abused, her father wasn't a _nice_ man." And with all the confusion Superboy exploded and somehow the store did too. _Her father wasn't a nice man_ he had heard Robin say, Hallo had said that Ted had situations with heights that ironically grounded the fear of heights and lastly coupled with the scar along her spine cemented the fact that _her father wasn't a nice man_. Yet Ted still went to meet with him.

Superboy was not as insensitive as to ask about the abuse Ted had been victim too, he was not so cruel as to make her relive the pain too simply put his own pain at rest. Superboy would always wonder what Ted's life was like before living with Hallo but it was enough too know that she had been in pain, and now she was not. That was enough for him. _If she wanted us to know, she would have told us_ Kaldur once said, and since Ted hadn't told them anything as of yet, there would be no pushing for her to open old wounds.

However there was the pain of not being told where she went and the feeling of mistrust was still present. _If she wanted us to know, she would have told us._ Would she tell him what was wrong with meeting her father (other than the obvious) that the League had to take steps and forbidding her from going outside? "What happened?" he asked her, finding the courage to do so, he was still leaning his forehead against the back of her neck, "When you met your father?"

"…" there was hesitation, and then Ted released a gentle sigh, "We talked a bit." She admitted, "Over at the park a few miles from here. By the pond, he said some things and I said some things. Then we went our separate ways."

"What did he say? You came back and it looked like you were in shock."

"He told me the truth Superboy."

For some reason, whether it was because of her throbbing fingers or because of the twist in her chest, she felt it would have been better knowing the truth than to live in the false light of ignorance. "And I said thank you."

* * *

_FREE AT LAST FREE AT LAST but now freedom had become a prison._ Ted was now eight days into being on house arrest and the team had left the night before on a recon mission. The red light of her anklet was a constant reminder that she could not put on her favorite boots and she also couldn't go outside to the book store after finishing _all_ of her new books. She had given thought to re-reading her other books, but she had already memorized their contents and thus it would do nothing but bore her further. Ted was lying on the couch, flipping through channels she had never seen before but she couldn't find something that would entertain her. She had to put on a skirt today, and the last three days, because she owned no shorts and her jeans would not fit over the anklet.

The skirt was a red one; it would flutter and tickle her thighs when she walked but she had never worn it very often because she had always preferred wearing her jeans and boots. A black long sleeved shirt kept the cold of the room away. Since she could not leave the base, she was subjected to amounts of paper work she didn't know was possible to do in a single day.

Again and again, Batman would send test after test after test not to just to keep her occupied but also to further the punishment. Ted had begun to watch an educational video about the harm of street gangs and how to spot them when a com-link came through the main computer.

A message from Robin, they were coming back from their mission and should be arriving in the next hour or so.

He wanted the med-bay prepped and ready for use.

Bart gave a whine when she rubbed a muscle relaxant into his calf, Ted was stayed silent through most of it but it was always better this way. Megan had a few cuts but they were nothing serious. Superboy had no real injuries that needed her attention, and Kaldur only had some bruises that needed some gauze, but it was Robin she was worried about. She could hear him have some _slight_ trouble with breathing and he was instructed to stay in the med bay for x-rays.

"All right Bart," she sighed, "You're done for now. I want you to do your regular stretches but afterwards to rub this," she handed him the tube of muscle relaxant, "into any and all sore areas. You should use it twice daily for the next five days, then that stop using it."

"Thanks _doctor_."

"You're welcome Bart."

Never before, had Ted wanted Bart to leave her presence then right now. Ted knew she should feel guilty, but for some reason she could seem to _want_ to feel guilty. He left the room in a blur, and she could hear Robin shifting around in the back room. He was likely trying to escape the tests.

"Robin," she called, "Are you still having trouble breathing?"

Ted could feel the fabric of her skirt shift and tickle her thighs as she walked past the door and through the white curtains. Robin was sitting hunched over on one of the medical beds he was previously laying on, and it was clear he was in some pain. "…Robin." She sighed, almost disappointment was in her tone and she watched as Robin struggled to stand up.

"Stay there," she pushed him back gently, "I'll get some pain medication."

She turned her back on him, "… Why did you go see Doctor Stein?"

"I need you to take off your shirt. I need to see if you have any broken ribs."

"Answer me!"

Ted didn't want to face this, not now and never. Looking over her shoulder, she saw that Robin had not started in his shirt but instead was looking accusingly at her person. She had deserved it though, Ted reminded herself, and she _did_ deserve it.

"…he wanted to talk to me…"

"_Stein_ _isn't your father!_"

"_And neither is Batman yours! But you still see him!_"

Then there was silence. The room was warm but there was now a cold air breezing between them. Cold air was the only thing between them. Rarely would Robin speak to her, and even rarer so would he spend time with the team that did not include _being a team_. Why should she speak to someone who _clearly_ didn't want to be her friend?

Robin was stern now, hard as stone and maybe harder than Superboy. Harder than Superman during the trial. Ted was alone again, and she could feel something in her stomach that wished to make appearance but she swallowed it back down. Her hands no longer burned, and she didn't need to wear bandages on them anymore but the cuts and scrapes were still on her skin, rough with skin and scabs.

"…I know it seems silly and maybe downright stupid to say this… but even though I know _everything_ he's done, I still care. I still see him as my father…" The medication was dropped into Robins hand and they were chased down his throat by the water. Ted instructed once again for Robin to remove his shirt, and Ted removed the stethoscope around her neck. "He's killed people, and I don't doubt that he might be insane but he was the one person I knew that would help me while I was still in the Home Base. I didn't mind the strange questions and the weird requests because all I needed to know that I did something that made him proud of me."

"He kept you in a _cage_."

Robin's heart rate was normal, and feeling the skin revealed there were some fractures but there was nothing broken. A few torn muscles and dark bruises but nothing _physically_ broken. "And he was the one who called the Justice League. Have you ever thought why it was _Stein_ that willingly called the_ Justice League_? The Home Base was _underground_; I wouldn't have been able to go anywhere because I didn't know what a staircase or an elevator was. I wouldn't have stepped in one had you not been there with me. Why would he call the Justice League if the cage with in another cage?"

"I know it was wrong," Ted continued, "But I thought it would give me the chance to see him, and maybe even give me some answers. I thought about talking him into turning himself in, but he always guessed at that. I'll admit, I think it's nice to know he hasn't been hurt. I'm sorry, I know its wrong to say that but it's the honest truth."

It was strange talking to the boy now, in such a detail that Ted found herself forgetting to think about opening her mouth. The honest truth was never hesitant to reveal its ugly head. Her fingers prodded the soft skin, feeling the textures of the bruises and the bumps of harder muscle and rib bone. Her finger ran down the light section of skin where a scar sat, innocent and not innocent. 'A badge of honor…'

"…You still went." Robin said, low and Ted had to strain her ears to hear him correctly. "You still went even though you knew of the dangers." The heat from his skin was different from what she felt in her fingers, her hands were cold, and everything felt so much different because her cuts were still healing over. She often wondered if everyone felt this way, if all skin was soft but Kaldur had put that curiosity to rest.

"If Batman had done something you didn't like, and he vanished for a few years, and then turned up again, would you go and see him?"

"It's different with Batman. He's never killed anyone."

"_Would _you go_ see him_?"

Ted pressed her question, finally leaning away from Robin but not turning away form him. The masked boy bit his lip, his frustration seeping through his body language and it said 'Do Not Come Near Me'. Normally, Robin was making a stupid joke about being 'whelmed', one of which she didn't understand but simply let the subject be. She curled a lock of hair behind her ear. "…would you see him Robin?"

"Of course I would…" he sighed out, almost sounding exhausted, "All I'm saying is that… you went to see him alone. I can't believe that you of all people did that! You know he's dangerous! You knew he could have captured you or-or _worse_!"

" 'Worse'? Robin, I know I might not be that smart to the world outside of the Home Base but I can guarantee you that there is _nothing_ worse than knowing you're a _product of murderers and thieves_. He's the only thing I have towards a real father, a little _something_ of a family."

Now Robin was silent. Now Robin understood. The subject of a family, one that she _thought_ she had, but the truth was she never had one to begin with. It would be like to promise a small child that after doing all their homework, and get all good grades in school that they would be rewarded, but no one said if the reward would be good or bad until the last second. Then for all the hard work, the child would be thrown out of their home, and left alone in the dark of the night were predators roam and filth thrives. A family, something that influenced all life on Earth. Powerful and often taken for granted.

And then there was the knowledge of knowing that you were not a product made of love.

A mother would love her baby unconditionally, even if she only met the father in a bar, and she never saw him again but she would love the child. Mothers that had children that they _didn't_ want, with fathers they _didn't_ want, were rarely loved the way a mother _should_ love their baby. A child of rape and thievery. How different was Ted in those ways? Created by a mad man who stole children _from_ mothers, cutting them up and sowing them back together as if it were an macabre art project? Robin was ashamed to think of Ted as the poor monster Dr. Frankenstein created, for it had no name, and in reality, neither did she. She was a project, and everywhere she went the weight of knowledge of her origins forever haunted her.

For she was not made from love.

And nether was Frankenstein's monster.


	5. Chapter 5

"_I was dependent on none and related to none. The path of my departure was free, and there was none to lament my annihilation.  
__My person was hideous and my stature gigantic. What did this mean? Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination?  
__These questions continually recurred, but I was unable to solve them."  
-__Mary Shelley, Frankenstein_

_SUPERBOY HAD LEFT THAT MORNING TO METROPOLIS in the belief that if Superman was going to accept him, he would have to make the first move and impress Superman with the skill he had acquired in Young Justice._ Rarely would Ted wake up alone, but when she did there was always a reason and the bed spot where Superboy would have been laying upon her waking would still be warm. He had left the note saying he went to the city that which Superman protected, in the hopes they would have the chance to speak to each other and so Ted figured it would do Superboy some good to spend time with his genetic donor. She wished him safe passage, and hopes that his encounter with the being who would be considered 'father' end better than her own encounter with Robert Stein.

Its been days since her release from the house arrest anklet, and its been officially a full month since she had seen or heard from Dr. Hallo. Ted admitted to feeling what she read to be 'separation anxiety' and it would pass soon. She would not deny the feeling was tough to deal with, with every day passing without sight or word from Hallo but it needed to be done.

Ted and Hallo had to be separated. She had read that all children had to leave their parents to gain true independence from them.

The morning without Superboy had been rather slow moving. Ted took a quick shower, the smell of apples and warm vanilla flooded her bedroom and she was quick to dress. She remembered to take her medication before leaving her bedroom and went downstairs to the kitchen and hoped that someone had put on a pot of coffee. Ted had decided on wearing a red no sleeve shirt and some black jean skinny jeans with her normal heeled boots. She had even decided to wear a black band that hugged her neck, a 'choker' necklace that held a simple silver frame of a heart. Superboy had seen it during their outing to the bookstore the day she was released from her punishment and bought it for her as a gift. In turn, they went down to the shoe section and Ted had bought Superboy a new brand of boots with steel toes.

To her dismay, no one had made any coffee, and there was the possibility that only Ted had been awake thus far. Coffee grounds and hot water was placed into the machine, and she only decided on a light breakfast of honey cereal and banana slices.

"Good morning Ted." Kaldur came into the room, who was fallowed by Bart with a quick and groggy "...morn'n." who attacked the bowl of bananas. "Good morning, Bart go easy on the bananas please, I just got those."

The speedster froze, but grudgingly placed four of the five bananas he took out of the bowl. The exchanged normal morning conversation, and Kaldur invited Ted to a 'video game' that they would be having in the training room until Black Canary arrived. It was a few minutes after they departed when Ted finished her breakfast just as her communicator started, "_Ted, its Superboy._" He sounded exhausted.

She pressed on her com link to get the sound of Superboy voice better. "I hear you Superboy."

"..._I'm coming home._"

"Alright then. I'll be waiting for you."

Ted doubted that the trip to Metropolis went as well as she had hoped it would. The tone of Superboy told everything that she needed to know, it had gone worse than he had wanted it to go. Ted poured two cups of coffee, and sweetened both. A red cup and a white cup before hurrying down to the area where the warping gates sat waiting for their next transit. Through the doorway she watched as Superboy came through, standing straight and his shoulders squared as he completely ignored the video game and walked _through_ it. "Superboy?" Ted questioned gently to gain his attention. She sped her step up to meet him before leaving the training room. Megan had asked him how his trip had gone, but she was ignored as well.

Superboy was upset, Ted hoped that she would have more luck than Megan. The green eyed girl stepped up to Superboy, who at least looked at her existence.

"Are you alright? I brought coffee."

She held out the white up for him and kept the red cup closer to her. Superboy gave a large breath of air through his nostrils but accepted the white steaming cup. Ted knew he preferred his coffee more bitter than hers, while she loaded her coffee with sugar cane, Superboy only used maybe a square or two. He took a tentative sip, before taking a large portion of the liquid. "…I'm fine…" he finally answered her, but she didn't believe him. It was more than obvious that he was lying; Ted didn't push him to talk this time.

Family matters were not her forte.

There was a clearing of a woman's throat, and then, "Ready for training everyone?"

"Black Canary... Uncle J'onn!" Megan ran up to her family and embraced him, Ted couldn't help but look away, and watch as Superboy did the same. Megan and her other family exchanged small talk and Ted examined Black Canary. Ted knew that Superboy's own chest must be twisting in on itself like her own, so she gently pressed her arm against his. He glanced down, and took more of his coffee, but Ted could feel the air around them get warmer and Superboy's face was now gentle.

Black Canary was a tall woman with blond hair, if Ted could guess; she could have been Doctor Hallo's sister. She wore a leather jacket, boots, and standard wear for a member of the Justice League. She carried herself into the center of the arena as it activated into a glowing platform. Of course, Ted knew that she could not take the same training sessions as the other members of Young Justice; her training had already been completed while she still lived within the confines of the Home Base. In the span of three years, she was taught, and she had mastered several arts of defense and offense. She had yet to ask Robin for a _rematch_. Her contract stated that she could not train with the others, but it said nothing about training herself.

Ted turned to leave, and she was aware of Superboy fallowing her, "Stick around." Black Canary said, her voice echoing in the large hall, "Class is in session." Superboy and Ted turned around.

"I consider it an honor to be your teacher; I'll throw a lot at you." The leather jacket was taken off, "From what I learned from my mentors, and my own bruises." but not without a small grip of pain from her arm. It was bandaged, and Ted could not inspect it further. She wondered if it was safe for Black Canary to be involved with any sort of hard activity with her injury. She had her back turned to Superboy and Ted, "Now, combat is all about controlling conflict, putting the battle on your terms, you should be acting, _never_ reacting." Black Canary now had her hands on her hips, the light coming from the floor made her appear more muscular than she was. "I'm going to need a sparring partner."

"Me!" Bart cheered, eating what was left of a banana, "Right here!"

Ted left just as Bart was thrown onto the floor. Deciding it would be best to file some more paper work in the mean time than to watch Black Canary beat Bart.

* * *

Dreams normally happened when Ted had finally entered the deep part of sleep and entered the REM cycle. There, she would relive the thoughts, the feelings, and sometimes the emotional pain of one of her nameless donors. Therefore, the medication was introduced days after her release of the Home Base and it was explained what they would be doing.

"These pills will keep the cellular memory at bay," at the time Ted didn't know what 'cellular memory' was, but the shame of her ignorance defeated her will on asking what it was. "They will keep away flashes of memories from your donors Teddy. They're not _your_ memories, and these pills will help you make your own happy memories."

Her donors would still appear in her dreams. Standing and surrounding her, and then closing in on her like the deading petals of a flower.

She didn't want to face her donors again. And again. And again.

Sometimes, she wasn't sleeping when she saw them, she would see them in the mirror of her bathroom and in an instant they were gone. It was another girl, the young woman who 'gave' her green eyes to Ted, and the next, another female of possibly the same age who gave Ted her insides as there was nothing 'outside' Ted could connect to.

It was happening again. In her med bay as Ted tried in vain to file work and physical updates for the Justice League as it was apart of the terms. This time, it was more vivid. She could _hear_ them now...

The green eyed girl was talking to the other female. Sand blond hair and soft brown eyes. They were both wear the white hospital grade pajama's Ted wore during her first years of 'life' in the Home Base, and instantly Ted knew what it was. Another memory. From whom, she didn't know.

The image was moving like smoke over water, clear and distorted.

"_Don't you fuck'n take that tone wit' me _young girl_! You fuck'n Gotham Private!_"

Green eye seemed violent, and the image blurred more and hands, the owner of the memory, covered her eyes and there was now a pocket of darkness.

"_Now look what you did you Gotham Private bitch! _Shit!" then the hands were taken away, and Green eye was smiling softly down at her,

"_Hey there, no cry'n honey. None of that now. Ain't no one here wants to see you shed a tear._"

Ted could _feel_ the ghost warmth when Green Eye removed tears from the other female.

"_I'm here. We Narrow-Rats gotta stick together. Chin up girl. We'll get out of here. We're gonna get out soon._"

Then the image was gone when Robin walked through Green Eye, and Ted was shaken out of her stupor and tried to play it off with a yawn and some stretching. It _looked_ like it worked, but she didn't know how long Robin had been standing there. "We have a mission. Get ready."

* * *

Bruce had been waiting for Clark for only ten minutes before the later Metropolis Daily Planet Reporter walked through the bell chimed door of the restaurant. Homey but most standards, looked double wide trailer on the outside with neon lightings but overall, homey. He had seen the spectacle on the bridge, how Superboy attempted to gain favor with Superman, but was rebuffed when Superman was called on a mission and he so _bluntly_ used it as an _excuse_ to get away from his clone. Bruce knew that Clark (and Kal-El) was many things, but to give a cold shoulder to a child who _needed_ his attention was simply...

Bruce couldn't find a word for it.

The taller male sat down and both exchanged friendly gestures as friends would. "Apple pie," Clark ordered from his seat, he had been here before many a time, the pies 'apparently' remind him of home. "Devils Food." And Bruce thought for a moment just how _different_ they even ordered their meals.

"How's Timothy?"

"He's doing better."

"..." Clark gave him a pointed look, "Something tells me this isn't about dessert."

Bruce knew he was right, and he also knew that Clark knew what this whole conversation would be about.

"...The _boy_ needs you."

Instantly, Clark was in defense mode, "No. He needs you, and he's right. I'm just a constant reminder of what he's not."

He didn't need any special training from his time as Batman to know that Clark was troubled. He just needed to say 'the boy' and Clark had shrank from Superman, to one of the many dead-beat fathers he would see drunk in the alleys of Gotham. They kept their jobs, but would deny their sons. For whatever reasons didn't matter to Bruce, it was still wrong to do so. To put a child through that sort of mental torture.

"Sorry Clark but you're dead wrong. Look I know he troubles you. He's here; you have to get over the how and the why." Clark was going to walk out, Bruce just knew it. Before he could, Bruce needed to plant the seeds, and hope they would grow. "Trust me on this, this boy needs his father."

"I'm _not_ his father." He rose out of his seat like a bullet, and the chef watched him go towards the register.

"I'll take that pie to go."

* * *

_CHAPTER IV, ARTICLE 25 OF THE GENEVA CONVENTION "Members of the armed forces specially trained for employment, should the need arise, as hospital orderlies, nurses or auxiliary stretcher-bearers, in the search for or the collection, transport or treatment of the wounded and sick shall likewise be respected and protected if they are carrying out these duties at the time when they come into contact with the enemy or fall into his hands." _

Again and again, Ted would have had Doctor Hallo read from The Geneva Convention, from times of wars before 1900 and from her other books she had collected from her time in the Red Cross. Field Medics were given their own code of law, and in that law Ted would uphold everything it was with everything she was. The clear sign of a Medic, the red First Aid Insignia, and it was finally time to wear it.

Her uniform had been given to her by Batman personally, "Doctor Hallo had designed it for you. She wanted me to deliver it." Her uniform was mostly black, a long sleeved shirt with the white bands on each arm with the First Aid Insignia, black skinny jeans that were tucked into black boots and a belt with various compartments for medicines and bandages and other things.

Shots, drugs, gloves, and Ted was not without weaponry. Two pistols loaded with tranquilizers, her gloves were made with steel knuckles she could electrically charge at will, one special needle made for meta-humans always kept at her hip and finally her belt was made with a short range telaporter (three miles away at the most) that could carry herself, and two others when needed, but Batman told her that she could only use it once as it out short out the battery (he was still working out kinks at the moment) but hopefully it could be used more than once in the near future.

She had laced up her boots, and now working the buckled straps over them when Superboy walked through the entrance to their shared room. Shoulders bunched once again, and Ted knew instantly that Superboy was upset again. "Superboy?" she asked, to get his attention, which was given in record time, "Are you alright?"

"..." he sighed through his nose, and visibly deflated, "...Can we talk... after the mission? So we have time?"

"Of course Superboy." she finished the straps on her second boot before getting up, "You know I'm always willing to listen. No matter what."

Blue eyes looked down, then up, "... I like your uniform..." he said sheepishly, unable to think of anything else to say. "Thank you. Doctor Hallo made it for me. I see you're wearing your new boots. Do they fit well? Not too tight?"

He stubbed his foot into the ground, taking care of his strength as he responded, "No. They feel fine. I thought this would be a good chance to break them in."

Now feeling uncomfortable, Superboy scratched the back of his neck as Ted suited up her belt and tranquilizer-pistols. He saw that one was black, and the other was white, each one had the First Aid Insignia on the handles. He felt himself freeze at the size of the syringe she placed at her hip.

"...What's... _that_ one for?" he pointed towards the source of... what was he feeling? _Fear_?

"This?" she fingered the syringe, "Oh, this is just in case I have a close encounter with a Meta-humans or anything else that tries to get too close. This is a stronger tranquilizer made specially for them."

"Stronger?"

"Well," Ted began to recall a book about meta-human physiology, "Meta-humans have a faster metabolism. High body temperatures and a far stronger immune system when compared to a regular human. Uh, lets take you and me for example." She took his hand, "Your skin might as well be steel, stronger muscle build and abilities that no human can have. You're defiantly warmer than me. Myself, I'm simply human." It was often that Ted awoke to Superboy's strange purring and sweat, in the morning she was be groggy and slow to wake up because she didn't want to leave the heat that came from the boy like a furnace.

"That's only because I'm the clone of Superman." he looked down at his hand, narrowing his eyes at himself but Ted wasn't sure if he was angry or ashamed.

"A _copy_..."

Ted wondered if he knew how good he had it. He didn't need to worry about whose memory he was seeing, he was taught by G-gnomes about most things outside while she was kept in the dark and often felt the shame of not knowing things that everyone would see was common or redundant. Superboy was, to put things as simply but just as heartlessly, stolen matter of DNA. Hair, skin cells, possibly a blood sample or something had come from Superman without killing him.

At least he wasn't a modern Frankenstein project.

"It doesn't matter if you're a copy, if you're not a copy. It doesn't change who you are Superboy. You're nothing like Superman." She secured the meta-tranquilizer at her hip and before Superboy could retort, "And I wouldn't have it any other way."

Her fingers not longer burned, and the cuts were just about gone. Invisible but not to the touch. It reminded Ted that she could still feel things, that she was alive, and so were her donors in a sense of word. Her pistols were cold, but Superboy's hand wasn't. Not when she led him out of their room and into the hallway.

"Don't be Superman." She said solemnly, green eyes starring ahead and didn't see the blue eyes look down in confusion, "Be Superboy. Always be _you_."

If only she could find herself without finding _someone else_.

* * *

Strange to see Bart upon a motorcycle when he could have ran instead, but all members of Young Justice were wearing a helmet and straddling their own cycle. Ted's bike was black with the red First Aid Insignia and a steel box with other medical equipment but they had no use for now. They hid in the thickness of the woods; a ways from the four armored vans with the Amazo Android, further precautions prevented Young Justice from knowing exactly which vans had the parts but they knew that each team had half the android and that was all that was needed. Her bike sat idle between Robin and Superboy. They were waiting for Batman to signal for the armored vans to start moving, and that was the cue for Young Justice to move into position. Superboy turned his head, and his gaze seemed to go farther than the trees, and Ted could not bring herself to ask what he saw because she already knew.

The signal was given, and Young Justice parted into two teams. Team Alpha being Kaldur, Bart and Megan, and Team Beta held Superboy, Robin and herself. They were heading towards Boston, going away from Gotham through the country land when Robin suddenly began talking; Ted hadn't been paying attention at first, not until Robin invoked her attention at the word 'aster'.

"Aster?" Ted questioned the more experienced hero.

"Yeah. The opposite of dislike is like; the opposite for disaster is aster. Aster." Then he moved his bike closer and gave her a grin through his helmet. "You feeling the _aster_ Teddy?"

She was glad he couldn't see the burning sensation on her cheeks. Superboy rolled his eyes, and huffed at the childish antics. Ted sped the bike forward to the side of Superboy.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Black Canary. What business is hers to _teach_ a living weapon? Who does she think she is?"

"She's your combat instructor." Ted informed him, "I take it the training session didn't go to well."

"Nope." Robin informed her rather bluntly, "Not good at all. Had his butt handed down to him." At this, Superboy gave an animalistic growl. "But in all seriousness, she had to learn the hard way. Like batman, or Superman… And me and Ted here."

"I'm a weapon." Superboy growled out, "I don't need training."

"You're _not_ a weapon Superboy." Ted softened her voice to one she knew he would listen to. "How could you think of yourself of such a thing?"

"Because that is the _purpose_ of Superboy. The clone of Superman is a _living weapon._"

Ted put her eyes forward to the road, watching the armored car roll on before her and swallowed a small amount of saliva to wet a suddenly dry throat_. You might think that I'm giving you a purpose Ted. That our little meeting today would tell you that I really did care about you and that I would turn myself over to the Justice League but life, as you don't know it, doesn't work like that._ During her time outside of the Home Base, the first few months along with study, Ted had become fanatic about trying to find her purpose. The few days spent with Robin in the woods of the mountain in the little cottage, she kept asking if Robin could give her a _purpose_. At the time, she had thought a _purpose_ was a short lived task and it would be done with. Something to make her father proud of her again, something to make him talk to her and maybe explain everything with words she understood but Robin explained otherwise.

She gripped the handles of the bike, and sped forward in front of the boys.

"Ted?" Robin sped up with her, "Hey, what's…" He would have asked what was wrong, but then she knew that he suddenly figured out why she was upset now.

"You're not a weapon Superboy." Ted spoke, "Don't _ever_ say a thing like that about yourself."

"That is what I was taught in Cadmus."

"And you're _not_ in Cadmus anymore, are you?"

"I'm not, but-"

"But nothing." She interrupted him, and he was silent, "You're not with _them_ anymore. You don't listen to _them_ anymore. You're not being controlled by _them_ anymore. _They_ wanted you to be a weapon."

Robin listened in, knowing that Ted would set Superboy straight.

"My father didn't want me to be anything." Ted suddenly ventured, and Superboy perked up his head, as did Robin. She would never speak about that man. "He…used to tell me… that I didn't have a purpose. That I was here simply to take up space, but with some help I managed to get away from him, and now I have my own purpose. You did the same thing, but you don't realize that you make your own purpose, not someone else's. If I _hear_ you call yourself a _weapon_ again I'm using my Meta-tranquilizer."

"Meta-tranquilizer?"

Ted held up the large and damn well frightening syringe for good measure.

"Superboy, after this mission. We _are_ going to have a _long_ talk."

She then turned her head back to the truck and sped to the side of it. Away from the two boys. Robin sighed, "I guess she's not feeling the aster."

Kaldur drove his bike on the road, senses keen to pick up anything unusual. The car was leading the way, holding the cargo that Young Justice had been put in charge of protecting and making sure it had gotten to its destination. Megan was riding between Bart and himself, he wondered if he should radio in on Robin's squad. He felt against it, and went on with his business.

"Do you think Superboy is okay? Um, I didn't read his mind or anything like that, but does anyone know what's wrong with Superboy? Anger flowed off him in _waves._"

"Don't worry about him Megan, maybe a quiet mission will clear his head."

"Yeah," Bart boasted, "He's surfed that wave before. Just give him space. Me? Get as close as you want."

Megan ignored Bart.

Kaldur took a breath, "Superboy just needs to cool off." Kaldur had no doubts that Ted would be talking to him after the mission. "A quiet mission will clear his head."

The rode past acres of golden corn fields, Kaldur wished he had seen the mechanical monkeys beforehand.

* * *

_IT WAS STRANGE WHEN MR. MANNERS ASKED TED TO HIT HIM at first after three months of rehabilitation and awareness but the instructor had explained that her father wanted his little girl to know how to defend herself when the time was needed._ Ted often wondered why, none of the doctors would intentionally harm her, some didn't speak to her and sometimes there were those that would speak in another tongue. Mr. Manners had been a fourth degree 'black belt' (at the time, Ted didn't question what that was) and rigorous training schedules soon had Ted to be a master of hand to hand combat. It was possibly the only time Manners had ever been proud of his 'student'. Her father only marveled on how _fast_ she was learning.

"Robot monkeys! Haha! Totally Ivo's tweek style!"

Ted blinked, trying to determine if this was simply another vision (she had taken her medicine... right?), or if there _really were_ mechanical animals _laughing_ as they molested the armored car. A split second after her radio tuned in, Kaldur's voice floating through her helmet, "Robin! Superboy! Ted! Our truck is under attack!"

"Yeah!" retorted Robin, "We kind'a noticed!"

Ted placed herself behind Robin and Superboy, and she activated the battle mode of her bike. From two wheels, the bike split and her rear-wheels were now in the air. Robin doing the same, but Superboy seemed to have ignored the procedure. "Superboy! Put your bike into battle mode!" A clear command, but Ted knew that whatever Superboy was thinking it _wasn't_ putting his bike to battle mode.

"No need."

One second, Superboy was on the bike, the next, Ted had to speed out of the way of a flipping ton metal and steel going _at least_ a hundred miles per hour. The fumbling bike had taken out Robins ride and Ted watched as he was quick to draw out a line to the swerving truck as she took a moment to collect herself, the feeling of panic in the back of her throat.

'Oh thats it.' Ted growled internally, what patience she had was quickly ending with Superboy's newfound attitude, 'He's sleeping on the couch tonight'.

Superboy was on the top of the van, and Robin was making due by kicking out the robotic animals out of the way, both Ted's and Robin's rear weaponry making haste to defend. Robin swung his leg again, taking another monkey before he leaped over the van and disappeared from sight. A shower of robot parts feel of the van roof. Ted wished she could join them, but she could only enter as a last resort. The League was still trying to figure out just _how_ Stein had put her together, and Ted wondered if one day they were going to take her apart.

"_RHAa!_" Superboy flexed his arms to rid himself of the robots, he had one in his hand and he punched one dead with one swing of his fist. Superboy wasn't the Superman, but Ted remembered that he still had the strength of the Superman. In horror, Ted watched when a burst of green flashed before Superboy and he was whisked away by monkeys. "Superboy..." whispered more to herself than to him, then the robots dropped him.

"Superboy!" Her bike screeched when she slammed on the breaks, Superboy fell behind her and she could hear his body hit the pavement _twice_. How much damage could Superboy withstand? How strong was his skin? What did that flash hit? A quick glance at the van, Robin seemed to be doing fine, fighting robot monkeys but Superboy was another story. When her bike finally stopped, she quickly forgot about it and let it fall to its side.

Ted ran to his side, "Superboy?" From a first look, the areas around his eyes were scorched, and his face was scrunched up in frustration and concentration. "Superboy?" She asked him again, taking his jaw line into her hands to get a better look at his injuries. Could he open his eyes?

She couldn't ask him. Instead, Superboy bared his teeth and growled much like an animal that she had once seen on the nature channel, and roughly pushed her to the side. The contact between her shoulder and the pavement was not kind, but Ted felt her heart sink when Superboy leaped with a burst of strength. Up and away and landed once again on the truck.

Up and away.

Forcing herself up, Ted ran back to her idle bike, starting the engine back up, it was then she saw the monkeys carrying away what was supposed to be their mission, in tow was a leaping Superboy.

"_Medic to Robin,_" she spoke into the communicator, "_What happened?"_

"I just lost my partner!" Robin was very upset.

"_Are you and the driver injured?_"

"No we're fine. Try to keep a visual on Superboy if you can. He's ditched his communicator."

'Yeah. You're on the couch tonight Superboy.'

"_Alright Robin. I can still see him but try to find out how the robots were able to find the parts. Find out where they're headed and find a rendezvous point. I'll keep you posted_."

"... This is a disaster."

"_Heavy on the 'dis'._"

Her communicator went silent after five minutes of her fellow team members reporting on any injuries. None needed her immediate attention, simple scratches and bruises. She continued to fallow Superboy, day turned into night and Ted wondered just how far Superboy could go without getting tired. It had been at least an hour now, and he still was leaping with the same strength and vigor as an hour ago.

As Robin informed her, the parts were headed towards Gotham, and they _weren't_ going to call the League. Fields gave way to higher ground, and Ted had to fight to slippery terrain to haul her bike to stay on route with Superboy. Her bike gained speed beside a train, and the monkeys holding what was their mission slipped inside an open compartment.

"_Medic to Robin. The parts have just boarded a train. Do you know where they're headed yet?"_

Superboy gave one last leap before entering the train car through the roof. She could see nothing, and with her bike already pushed to the limit, she could do nothing to help Superboy.

"Yeah, they're headed towards _Gotham!_" Ted could feel herself shiver at the thought of meeting Batman on his home turf (Where had she gotten that term?), "...Towards my school..." School? "I'll be there to meet you! Stay with Superboy!"

"_Very well._"

Her throat felt like it was tightening, but she could find no rational reason to _why_. The area seemed familiar but she knew for a fact that _Ted_ had never been so far from Hallo's home or the mountain base. Perhaps a donor was here before...

"This is Aqualad. I'm sending KF ahead to meet you two."

"_Acknowledged._"

"Got it."

The cart rocked on the tracks, and there were bursts of concentrated light before the body of Superboy was blown into the air fallowed by a... Ted narrowed her eyes, another being? Robot? She couldn't be sure from her position, but only sure that the ride from here to the school wouldn't be pleasant.

"Superboy!" she shouted through her helmet, how much of a beating could he take? She heard the crack of metal just as she came to a worn out path in the woods. Superboy must have hit the roof and gone through it. Once again she wondered how tough his skin was.

The woods were strangely familiar, and it was the feeling of being there before that scared her.

* * *

_FILES CONFISCATED AFTER THE ARREST OF TED HALLO WERE SENT TO BATMANS PERSONAL LAB as were all the other files from the Home Base section of Design. _Eleven of the twelve 'donors' had been identified through the papers and reports but the last donor had been written off as 'volunteer 001' or was currently under the name Voice as Ted called her. Bruce sat before his computer, back hunched over and chin rested over folded fingers were a clear body language (for those close to Bruce) of unadulterated anger and even shame.

Seven out of twelve had been from Gotham. Three from those said seven were from the depths of the Narrows, one from Arkham, and the last three teenagers had been from upper-middle class families. One of the three had been attending Tim's school during his freshman year before vanishing. The other four had been from the Metropolis City area. Missing cases of the girls had been pulled up, but Bruce could find only ten of the eleven missing teenagers. One girl from the Narrows had never been called in as missing.

All teenagers were around the same weight and height and files stated that had all been taken within the same forty-eight hour window. Bruce could see a lot of Ted, the long dirty blond hair once belonged to Samantha Darwin. The brilliant green eyes were from Helena King.

"...King?"

The name struck a cord within him.

All he did was a quick, less then fifteen second search of his digital files before a past case from _four_ years prior of the same Helena King.

The tragedy of Helena King was not of his fondest of memories. Though she was young, possibly a few months younger than Tim at the time (12) had more control of one of the larger gangs fighting over territory of the Gotham Narrows. Her skill in tactical maneuvers and talent in prediction of the enemy moves had made her a prime target to kill. At the tender age of twelve, she had already taken the lives of more than ten _known_ cases and Bruce didn't want to think of just how many people she had killed. Born to a mother without a husband or father figure, Helena King had learned most violence during the tenderest of her younger years. Her mother worked full time in several jobs and she had admitted to prostituting herself when the landlord upped the rent.

To help her mother with bills did whatever she could. Convinced her mother to home school her so she could stay close and have more time to get money. Between the ages of six and nine, Helena had pick-pocketed possibly thousands from wealthy men of the business district. Somewhere along the line, Helena had met with all sorts of illegal things and slowly became a key asset to the gang 'Blood Rabbits'. With her on their side, the Blood Rabbits were gaining more territory than anyone else, taking over most of the Narrows, and slowly moving from the Narrows Island to Gotham City herself. Helena and her mother fell apart, and her mother begged Helena to leave the Blood Rabbits after saving enough money for an apartment in Dakota City.

But Helena King was in too deep. Knew too much about the insides of the Blood Rabbits. She could only leave in a body bag. The mother moved from the Narrows to the nicer parts of a Gotham, Loveville Apartments that were only a few hours ride by public transport should Helena need a place to hide. Helena stayed in the Narrows, Bruce wondered if she helped her mother move, and watch her get farther and farther away from her.

Of course, only Helena King would know such a thing.

At eleven years of age, Helena King had shot a police officer point blank without clause or reason. One witness had been a new member of Blood Rabbits, Miranda Deans. The officer was investigated, and laster to be found hopeless corrupt, he allowed gangs and prostitutes to work as long as he got free 'service'. It was later found that he would pay 'extra' if given a night with a minor, several children were interviewed and found that the former officer was a positive pedophile. Hardened by the life of gang warfare and violence, Helena King could no long be considered a child.

At twelve years, Helena King and Robin, still new to the world of a masked hero, had faced off while Batman had been taking care of another group of gang members. Helena and Robin were equals in combat, Helena being on the street long enough to know how to fight and Robin being trained by Batman himself. A well thought plan had Robin's head smashed into the brick building, and Helena escaped. She could have killed Robin if she so chose to, but she didn't.

Robin recalled her talking to someone before he blacked out in pain, a name spoken in gentle words. Sandra. Sandra. Helena King went into hiding, and was not heard of since.

Sandra.

The third donor profile of the Narrows was an albino minor, Sandra Williams. White hair, white skin and pale red eyes, was the daughter of a prostitute that never called in her child as missing.

Sandra Williams was a rape victim.

The disks taken from Ted had video evidence of several interviews with the eleven donors but the twelfth was never identified nor interviewed. A low sigh, and Bruce found the courage to open the video stream labeled SANDRA WILLIAMS 001A.

The video was from the top corner of the room, a white room with a single white table and two chairs that occupied the albino and who he could only describe as doctor Hallo herself. The albino was recorded thirteen years old during the interview.

_Good morning Sandra, can I call you Sandra?_

…_sure..._ Sandra kept her head down, her hands fiddling with the white hospital grade pajamas that Ted wore in the Home Base.

_I'm only going to ask you a few questions, alright? Would you like something to drink before we begin? Water? Tea? Coffee?_

_...tea..._

As if on cue, a male nurse came through the door behind Hallo with a hot cup of tea surrounded by various condiments. Sandra curled tighter into her seat. The nurse took a minute to add sugar and creamer before being dismissed by a wave of Hallo's hand.

_Sandra, how old are you?_

_Thirteen._

_Where are you from?_

_Gotham._

_Where in Gotham?_

_...the Narrows..._

_Oh don't be like that, there are other girls from the Narrows I'm sure you've already met them by now._

_I have..._

_Good. I'm glad you made some friends. How did you meet them?_

_...Who?_

_Helena King... The girl that curses a lot? We had to place her in isolation before she got the chance to beat down Samantha. _

_Oh... I know her... she was only defending me..._ Sandra pulled up her legs, being her knees closer as she held her tea cup tighter to herself.

_Yes I heard the fight. What was it that she called you? A 'Narrows Rat'?_

_...yes..._

_Why would she call you that?_

_Because I'm from the Narrows._

_Ah. Whats to bad about that place? I'm not from Gotham, but all I know about it is that there are gangs and apartments. Sounds like any other city to me._

_The Narrows is an island in Gotham. Arkham Asylum is on the Narrows taking up nearly half of it. So the Narrows has a bad rep because of that place._

_Oh. I didn't know that... Sources tell me you met Helena right after she murdered a police officer. Can you tell me anything about that?_

Sandra let her tea cup slip onto the floor, visibly shaking as she let out a small wail of distress. Her hands over her ears. _No! No! I don't wanna talk about that!_

_Talk about what? _Hallo didn't seem fazed at all as Sandra began signs of a panic attack. _Murder? The officer she killed?_

_NO! Stop!_ Sandra curled tighter as Hallo wrote something on her clipboard. _He wouldn't stop..._ she started, gasping in air, _wouldn't stop. Wouldn't stop._

Hallo gave a heavy sigh, and Sandra was pulled out from the room. _Place her in isolation. We don't want her scaring the other subjects. Keep her on suicide watch... I can't believe you picked up a rape victim... shit..._

The video feed ended and something in Bruces' gut turned to ice. Hallo knew from the start who the girls were, she had been the one who interviewed them all.

Hallo knew.

Hallo knew.

_Hallo knew!_

His fingers commanded that the HELENA KING 001A.

The younger of the two was strapped in a wheeled chair, her arms and legs bound as she protested loudly.

_The fuck! Get me the hell out of this fuck'n thing! Who the hell are you?_

_My name is Doctor Hallo, and I would like to ask you some questions._

_And I wanna get out of this thing but that doesn't seem to be happening either. _

_If you behave yourself I can have you released._

_You take these off and I'll ring your little neck!_

_Please there is no need for such threats._

_I don't make threats bitch._

… _Where are you from Helena?_

_Don't call me by first name-I ain't your friend!_

_Very well miss King. Where are you from?_

_You should know dumb-shit! You're the one who kidnapped me! If you ask me 'do you know where you are' I'm gonna pop you._

_...You're rather violent for someone your age._

_Yeah well aren't you a little old to be kidnapping a bunch of kids?_

_...Tell me about that officer you killed._

_What about that meat-sack? _

_Why did you kill him?_

_Because he thought being a cop meant I wouldn't shoot him._

_Surely it must be more than that?_

_Yeah it is. That shit thought he was gonna get all the drugs in the world for free. He ratted out a few friends and I was asked to take out the trash._

_Ah, so it was gang business?_

_No. I lied. I don't like cops so I shot him with his own gun. Meat-sack tried to arrest me!_

_...So you killed him simply because he was a cop?_

_The best cops are the ones that stop moving._

Helena had brilliant green eyes. Narrowed down on Hallo but Batman had seen that look before. Sinister, and cunning. Ted never had that look, she had some how softened those hardened eyes.

_I see._

_Yup._

_I read your file, it says you're apart of the Blood Rabbits._

_I ain't say'n noth'n about the Blood Rabbits. You want info on us then you might as well kill me before I kill you._

… _So you've killed before? Before the officer?_

_Oh yeah, killed plenty. Blacks, whites... whatever you call yourself... cops, even a few Rabbits that thought they would run away with money I earned. That cop wasn't anything special, and don't think that you're exempt either. _

_Reports say you're from Gotham._

_If you knew where I was from then why was that your first question? Dumb bitch. _

_From Gotham, we know for a fact you ran into Robin. You let him live._

_So?_

_Why let him live?_

Suddenly, Bruce was very interested in the video.

_Why let Robin live?_

_Yes King, he's the hero and you're the criminal. Robin would have been a threat to your gang later, why not eliminate him then?_

_You call me 'criminal' and yet you're the one who kidnapped a bunch of little girls? Oh the irony. _

_Please answer the question._

_Fine. I let him live because I wanted to know what would happen._

_...What does that mean?_

_I don't think I need to be any clearer. I wanted to know what he would do after I beat his ass into the building. _

_You wanted to see if he would learn from your encounter?_

_No._

_Then explain. I'm having trouble fallowing._

_Of course you would. I let him live simply to let him live. I might be a murderer but I'm not one to simply open fire._

_But you have open fired. On several cars full of people._

_Yeah, but those were rival shit-gangs trying to take what was mine. Thats different._

_Samantha. What did she do to make you try to kill her?_

_She was putting down someone who couldn't get any lower. I beat that Gotham Private shit where she belonged._

_Gotham Private?_

_Yeah, she thinks because she was 'MVP' or some shit like that, that she had to right to try and dis Sandra._

_So you _do_ have a sense of justice._

_No. Unlike Batman, someone who wrongs me gets a free body bag. _

_Do you have any respect towards the caped crusader?_

_...One time I did. I used to wait outside on the fire escape just to catch a glimpse, but Batman seems to think that the Narrows is already lost. The only time he ever comes to the island is when he drops some dumb fucker in Arkham or if he absolutely has too. Fine. If he don't wanna defend _all_ of Gotham, then he ain't no hero._

_What made you lose respect?_

_The day I _finally_ saw him. I screamed out for him to stop cause I needed to tell him that there was gonna be a blood bath near the Arkham gate. But he didn't, and some good people died that night. Mom's boyfriend was one of them. H e was gonna get us out of the Narrows! So I taught myself what I could before joining up with the Blood Rabbits. _

_I'm sorry for your loss. _

_Don't apologize for shit you don't understand._

…

…

Helena was being wheeled out of the room before Hallo had her stopped at the door.

_You have beautiful eyes._

_...Got my daddies eyes. Or so my Ma tells me._

The video ends with Hallo stating that Helena would be kept on observation and kept away from objects she could use as weapons.

Bruce sat in the artificial like of the super computer, brooding in his thoughts and could find no light in the situation.

"Master Bruce? A penny for your thoughts? Or maybe coffee will do you better."

A sliver tray was set before Bruce and the smell of imported coffee wafted his nose. "...Coffee sounds perfect Alfred."

The old man smiled, and placed the cup and plate on the smaller table near the Wayne before glancing up at the screen. "I presume they are the victims of a mister Robert Stein?"

"Unfortunately."

"I say, they look awfully young."

"The oldest of the bunch had been thirteen."

"Tragic."

"The real tragedy is they all went missing around the same time and I didn't notice."

"Master Bruce, Batman can't be _everywhere_. You know that, but listen when I say that you _are_ making a difference in Gotham."

Bruce sipped his coffee. "Sometimes I wonder if Batman really is making a difference."

The man put the coffee down and made quick work with his fingers upon the keys. Data that had been labeled 'DESIGN & THEORY' was a PDF file meant for presentation, possibly for a medical book as there was a table of contents and even a glossary. Another file was opened, more notes, more theories and arguments on how different organs from different people would react to each other. More non-sense that was the work of doctor Robert Stein, genius that he had actually done it and the subject (Ted) had survived for this long.

The human body was not meant to be 3D puzzle. Three years in the 'coma' Ted was under, she had several organ failures, and they were simply replaced with one of the unused organs form the eleven unwilling donors including hearts, a few sets of kidneys, one whole intestinal track and some brain matter.

Though, not everything inside Ted was organic, the spinal cord was mechanical to gain information on body temperature and other rates from the inside. Heart rate, blood glucose levels, neural activity and electrical activity were all factors in The Enigma Design. _Why are there factors if there is no purpose?_ Hallo did not know the answer to this question and only said it was only the madness in Robert that spoke in the name of science. The mechanism that posed as her spinal cord was kept functional by the natural flow of electrical charges in her body as any human would have. It kept her in position by linking up with the super computer while inside the 'womb' she slept in while being pieced together.

After two years of near continues surgeries, her body seemed to accept the new parts and went into a deep sleep with the help of pain killers and drugs. Ted was reported not to dream during her coma. She had no good dreams, and she had no nightmares and during this time Robert had stated that _maybe_ his test was finished and all he had created was a vegetable.

Therefore more measure had to be taken to ensure subject TED001 would awaken and the testing would continue.

A lone scientist had stepped up and offered a literal piece of herself to 'guide' TED to the world of the living. A thirty-four hour and forty-three minute surgery later, Ted was now host to whom she called 'Voice'. Seven months after receiving Voice, Ted awoke from her coma and the testing continued as planned.

No memories.

No reaction to photos of her donors.

No outside link to the world other than a series of murders.

Doctor Hallo was placed as her therapist and was required to weekly sessions to study the mind as others studied the body.

When Ted started showing signs of 'Cellular Memory', moments of time when Ted would black out and say something that would correspond to the speech pattern of one of her donors, Robert had been ecstatic.

Ted was frightened. Unsure of where she was afterwards and immediately sought out Hallo who was then seen was a 'mother' figure in Ted little lie of a home.

The plan backfired when Voice began to influence Ted's actions. Voice knew everything about the Home Base, where was what and what they did. Ted knew hand to hand combat (thanks to Mr. Manners) and had the will to carry out whatever it was that Voice wanted if it meant freedom. Ted didn't kill anyone.

She knew that was wrong and used drugs and forced both male or female nurses onto beds where they were restrained. Systematically speaking, Ted had been rather smooth. Cutting off the main power, cutting off all PA systems, holding up in the Main Control, and attempting to break up everyone that attempted to stay in groups. It was only the use of back up generators that Stein managed to get the attention of the League, but at the same time the Batman wondered what Stein was thinking when he called them.

Why call the enemy your trying to hide from?

The answer was simple in the mind of a madman.

_To see what would happen._

* * *

_SUPERBOY WAS ONCE AGAIN THROWN IN TO THE BLEACHERS by the robot as Professor Ivo watched like a spectator at a sport_. The robot, Amazo as it was called. He had tried every angle and he _couldn't get a damned hit on it!_ The robot stood taller than himself and perhaps taller than Superman. Red eyes, and a monotone voice that spoke the names of the heroes before using their powers. Every time the name 'Superman' was uttered between those metal lips, he could feel his chest tighten and confusion was born at to what caused that feeling.

He would have Ted examine him when the mission was over.

Thunder in his ears when Amazo activated Black Canarys' ability and again he was thrown back. He didn't feel the harsh impact of the floor but instead the quick hands that could only be Kid Flash.

They needed a plan, Superboy watched when Robin threw out a blade only to have it make no contact _through_ Amazo. They needed a plan.

Ted was shamed to admit that _once again_ she was _lost_. However, here she was in _another _hallway that looked the same as the one she just passed through. All the lockers were labeled with quadruple digit numbers and all the classrooms were locked. This was a public school? Or maybe a private? She wished she knew the difference but Ted hadn't been able to attend a public school.

_The windows were always so bright during the early morning of first period and sometimes it was hard to see the board from the lights glare. Students voices from the outside hall were loud and there was someone either yelling or laughing and sometimes there were both._

Ted blinked hard and shook her head. Another memory.

She wished it would stop.

_She was going to be late! Practice was going to start without her if she didn't get to the right stairwell! She looked around, a mild form of panic in her belly as she thought of where she was. Hallway D, and thankfully the stairwell was in Hallway C that was connected to her hallway. With a "Yes!" and a tightening grip on her gym bag she was off with a running start. Suddenly glad she decided on sneakers that morning instead of heels as she tore down the long hall and down the three flights of stairs and burst through the doors of a teachers lounge. A straight-shot from the entrance door was another entryway to another stairwell. Not like the other ones around the school, smaller and meant for maybe two people instead of hundreds. Stepping through two more doors she had finally come into the girls locker room._

Ted was in another room, without windows and there were more daisy yellow lockers, but it wasn't a hall. The lockers stood in rows, and there were cube-lockers along the walls as well. A long mirror as she starred into it and herself. How had she gotten here?

One of her donors had been attending this school. There could be no other explanation.

_Teddy?_ Voice's sweet voice, _You were running here. I don't think you were conscious of it though. It's alright. You're in the girls locker room. We're right below the battle._

Indeed, she could hear the hard thumps and roaring from Superboy and the android. "...Should I be up there now?"

_It would be better to wait._

"And why is that?"

_Safety overall._

Looking at herself as Voice spoke _inside_ her head had been, for the lack of words, _unpleasant_. Another jostle upstairs where the action had taken place told her to move. Get up there. Do something. _Anything_.

_What could you do to a robot with tranquilizers?_

Ted blinked, and looking into her own green eyes, she knew something uncharacteristically violent inside said something along the lines of 'punch it to death'.

Her fists tightened, and the gloves crackled to life.

"I'm not going to use tranquilizers."

_No._ Voice said at once, stern and yielding no room for argument. _You would only present yourself as a problem. The chances of you going through a memory lapse is to great to ignore._

"But everyone else is fighting, I'm apart of Young Justice. I might be their Medic but I can still fight."

_Memory is getting to vivid. You ran into the locker room and then asked _how_ you get here. Fighting is not an option until we figure out whats going on with the medication. You took it this morning. I know that but I believe the body is getting used to it._

"I can still fight."

"It doesn't matter if you can fight my dear my Amazo would crush you under a second."

The voice was not Voice but instead a calmer and older man that was only a head taller than herself. Her knuckles crackled again in their charged state and in her agitation. This man was far older than she was and judging from being surrounded by laughing robot monkeys she would only assume this man was Ivo.

"Professor Ivo?"

"The one and only. And _you_ must be The Enigma Design? Are you not?"

Ted didn't want to give anything away, but she couldn't stop herself from a twitch in her leg. A nervous tic she couldn't seem to get rid of.

"So you _are_ the Design? Hmm? I must give Robert congrats on such fine surgical work. Though I'm curious to see how your spine works."

Her spine? She took a side step, but was stopped by a laughing robot. "Don't bother. Come now, sit down I wish for some intellectual conversation before I take my leave."

"I'm afraid I can't let you leave Professor."

"Yes yes," he drawled out, "I know all about you and your little pact with the copies above us and with the Justice League." Monkey's clambered around as they wove each other into a makeshift throne. "Now tell me, just _how_ does your spinal cord work exactly? How is it powered? Where and how does it connect to human organs? I'm also curious about maintenance."

Ted blinked, at first she wondered if she _should_ be answering them and they answer was a clear and loud _NO_ from Voice. Instead she chose that silence was the best remark. What does he mean? Why is he so interested in her spine? There was no reason for this.

"No?" Ivo asked, leaning over to press his elbows into his knees. "Doctor Stein always boasted about his little project in the underground circle and this is it? Is it true that there is another living conscious living inside your brain?"

"Why so interested?" she turned on him, "I thought you were all about the field of robotics."

Ivo chuckled as if she said something that was amusing. "Well of course I am a scientist in the pursuit of knowledge. Stein speaks about you fondly, about how he cheated God and Death to create a new life that thinks with reason and remembers things from the parts of her donors. Thus _proving_ the theory of cellular memory... Of course he can't get any of the credit being on the run from the Justice League, and the League is keeping all information all hush-hush from the scientific community and even _you_."

"It doesn't surprise me. Some things even I don't want to know."

There was information about herself that Voice knew about, and Ted had once told her to _never_ tell her these things unless it was absolutely necessary and she had so far honored that request.

"I'm a modern Frankenstein project, I see no reason to be so joyful about it."

"You're not a clone. You're not made from _dead parts_ and you were made within the rules of science and medical science. Quite a feat in this age."

Her knuckles crackled again, and Ivo sighed again. "Oh I've _upset_ you. Guess I've overstayed my welcome."

"You weren't _welcome_ to begin with."

"I bid you farewell. Enigma Design."

She a name. She had a _damn_ name.

He left though the teachers way and Ted could only punch the faces and short-circuit three of the monkeys. She gathered herself and let the charge fade in her gloves. It was useless to fallow him. She couldn't take all those robots herself and from the lack of sounds upstairs the battle was over. Only question was _who won_?

Telling herself that there could be injuries that needed her desperate attention and trudging up the stairs smelled of dust and industrial cleaners. Through a single heavy door she greeted the sight of Robin and Kaldur dismantling the Amazo which also appeared to have no head. The damage to the gym wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. There were holes in the bleachers, the floor only had one real worry and ignoring the hole in the roof it wasn't bad. Superboy was hunched over near the bleachers, clothes frayed and in some places on his chest was burned. Kid Flash was resting against the bleachers where Megan was tending to his wounds.

"Oh great you're here!" Megan said in joy, bringing attention to Ted's appearance. "KF needs bandages."

"And some love."

Ted couldn't help but roll her eyes. From the sound of his voice (he had the energy to joke) he would be fine. None the less she reached into one of her hip compartments for a roll of bandages. His elbow was cradled in his other arm close to his chest, spots of red stained the edges of torn fabric but it didn't need stitches. It would heal within a few days. "I need to disinfect that wound before anything." Her other compartment had iodine and cotton balls. Not much but it was something for first aid.

Bart hissed when the chemical touched the surface of his wound and Ted tried to swipe it as fast as she could.

Megan checked over Superboy while Ted's attention was on Bart.

"Superboy? Are you alright?"

"Fine," strained answer but alright. "Feeling the aster."

In the back of her mind, she wondered if Robin's ribs had enough time to heal just as the back-up armored vans pulled up.

* * *

_RETURNING HOME WAS A RIDE IN MEGANS ORGANIC SHIP and it was just as scary as the first ride Ted had played part in._ Robin's ribs hadn't enough time to heal and Ted wanted him in her medical ward for X-rays as soon as they could get back to the Sanctuary. Upon their return, Batman stood and waited in their command center with Black Canary, Red Tornado, Martian Manhunter and Green Arrow.

"Welcome back," the voice of Canary greeted them, it seemed that Robins visit would need to wait, "What happened?"

Kaldur spoke up at once, being the current leader until Robin decided it was time. "The Amazo Android is in pieces again, safely being studied at the two separate Star labs but Ivo escaped. And since he originated the tech, he's arguably more dangerous than the android."

"Capturing the professor will be a _League_ priority." Canary said.

"But," the Manhunter joined in, crossing his arms over his chest, "We understand that your mission encountered... _other_ complications."

All of Young Justice turned to Superboy. Including herself.

"Complications come with the job. You're ability to handle them has impressed the League."

Quirked, Superboy looked up, "The... _whole_ League?"

"Given time, yes." Batman seemed to be sparing Superboy of emotional pain and for that Ted was grateful. "Kryptonians as you know have very hard heads."

The air around Superboy seemed to calm, and for once that night it was gentle.

"Of course theres no shame in asking for help, thats why the League exists. Because there are some problems even we can't handle individually."

"_Please._" Robin snapped, maybe it was because he's worked with Batman for so long that he was the only one who would _stand up_ to him with such a tone of voice. "_If_ we needed help we wouldn't get the chance to ask." Shifting behind him he pulled out an arrow. "Look familiar? You were fallowing us!" Green arrow took the long stem of metal. "_Babysitting!_ You still done trust us!"

Then Green Arrow pulled out one of his own from his collection for comparison. Ted didn't know a lot about arrows, but the heads were different in shape. His were cut, where the one Robin had given him just now was smooth.

"We didn't you."

"...And thats not your arrows..." A pause before a knowing smile lit Robin's face. "Speedy!"

"He's got our backs." Kaldur said in obvious delight.

Ted knew she couldn't share the same feeling, as Speedy hadn't made the best first impression back in the Hall of Justice when meeting Bart, Kaldur and having a reunion with Robin. Bart was a blur when he swiped the arrow from the taller man in green. "Souvenir!"

Robin lay on the bed as Ted brought out his latest (not the last) of his X-rays. She studied the bones as she picked up the sounds of rustling sheets. "Stay where you are Robin, It appear that you've finally broken a rib."

"Oh thats just wonderful."

"Oh yes,it hasn't pierced anything so it _is_ wonderful."

The male sighed as Ted made notes in his medical records that she would update properly at a later time.

"They're wearing off. Aren't they?"

She paused, knowing what he was speaking of.

"...Might be. I don't remember taking them this morning."

"...How much do you have left?"

"Oh, enough to last a few months. Why?"

For reasons she couldn't fathom, Robin was silent.

Ted had just changed the bedding as Superboy walked from the bathroom rubbing his hair with a towel. He was wearing his black bed shorts and Ted had decided on her red shirt and black fuzzy pants for that night. The comforter was simple, dark purple and white pillow cases. She crawled in, forgetting that Superboy should have been banished to his own room (he claims they get better sleep together than apart) or maybe a couch in the entertainment room.

"..." He was looking at her now, she could see he was struggling with whatever he wanted to say. "I, uh..." he swallowed, "I'm sorry about earlier... About pushing you."

Ted blinked, and it came to her a second later. When his eyes were damaged, from the monkey robots. The only damage had been a scrap, nothing a bandage and some cream couldn't fix. "It's alright. I forgive you." _I forgive you_ were the magic words and his shoulders slouched and everything about him seemed to finally relax that day.

"You wanted to talk about something?" She moved over, allowing the maximum amount of room for Superboy to slip in. "What happened today? You seemed so much more upset than usual. I take your visit to Metropolis wasn't kind."

Superboy bristled, halfway in the bed, and willed himself to relax. "Yeah. It didn't go as well as I had hoped it would. He didn't even _want_ to give me a chance."

"I assume that he left to fight the Amazo then. Rather than stay with you."

Ted sighed, such things were out of her league. She didn't understand what exactly he wanted. The Man of Steels acceptance? Love? Ted knows they have the same DNA (half of it at least) so perhaps Superboy wanted a family father-son relationship. Ted would often think of Hallo as a mother figure but to call her 'mother' seemed like a vile taste in her mouth. Why, she wasn't sure.

"I'm his clone. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. He won't even help train me with my powers."

Ted didn't want to give his hopes up. Instead she pulled him closer to her, so that her lips would brush up against his temple and held him there. This was perfect. Comfortable heat, and holding him was perfect.

"I'm not going to pretend to understand how you're feeling, or what you want from Superman that he's clearly not giving. But I do know that you being a clone shouldn't have any factor in any of this. You haven't done _anything _wrong."

"He won't even talk to me. I must be doing _something_ wrong."

"And whats wrong with showing what you've learned here? We're still new to the whole hero business and its only natural that we do things wrong but the real crime is not helping us when we mess up. If he's not willing to _help_ you at least then it's _him_ thats doing something wrong. Not you."

"I jumped on the bridge where a bus of school kids were about to fall off. I got there before it tipped over and I would have pulled them away from the edge but then he took the bus out of my hands before I could show him I could save people too... He was right though, I could have destabilized the bridge."

"You can't fly, you needed to reach them somehow. He should have let you prove yourself, it sounds like he didn't even let you do that."

The clone sighed relaxing in her hold. "I'm a bad copy." he whispered and her heart clenched at the sound of remorse. He was regretting _himself_. "Can't fly like Superman. No heat vision like Superman..."

"It _doesn't matter_ if you're a copy, if you're not a copy. It doesn't change who you are Superboy. You're nothing like Superman. And I wouldn't have it any other way." She wrapped herself around him, wishing she could do more but knowing that she couldn't. "Don't be like Superman. Be Superboy. Be _you._"

"_I'm_ a bad copy."

"I happen to like bad copies. I like your eyes better than his. Yours are brighter, a lovelier blue."

She felt him stiffen for a moment.

"A lovelier blue."


	6. Chapter 6

_No human being could have passed a happier childhood than myself. My parents were possessed by the very spirit of kindness and indulgence. We felt that they were not the tyrants to rule our lot according to their caprice, but the agents and creators of all the many delights which we enjoyed. When I mingled with other families I distinctly discerned how peculiarly fortunate my lot was, and gratitude assisted the development of filial love  
__-Mary Shelley, Frankenstein_

* * *

_DREAMS WERE AS OF LATELY PLEASANT and for the first time in a long time Ted was not afraid to dream. _She didn't dream of being torn apart. She didn't dream of a memory. She was back at the mountain cottage the past few dreams that she could remember. It wasn't just Robin and herself at the little house, but all of Young Justice. They all lived together as a family would.

Ted doesn't remember what things were said, but she could remember the warmth in her chest when she woke up to yet another night of Superboys' purring.

Megan was baking something as there was a sweet scent wafting through the little window of the house. Kaldur and Superboy were holding axes and cutting lengths of wood. Bart was zipping around, using the wind of his super-speed to clean the surrounding area of stray leaves and twigs. Robin was playing a stringed instrument without his utility belt or anything that blocked his eyes. Once again Ted could see the brilliant blue that she met in the Home Base.

The same eyes that freed her.

Waking up, she could see feel the vibration of the song Robin had been playing. Or maybe it was Superboy. Ted was never sure.

* * *

_MOUNT JUSTICE BEACH would be their destiny for the day as Megan told Ted that morning at breakfast._ Bart had been called back to Central City, Ted had been informed that today would be his first day of school this year. Robins school date had been postponed until repairs were done to the building, resulting in Robin spending a few extra days in the Sanctuary and much to Ted's delight, had agreed to join them in their little trip.

"Oh we don't have anything like Earths' beaches on Mars! The sun, the sand, the smell of the ocean is so different from home." Megan helped herself to some scrambled eggs Ted had just finished. "I've heard that's its so nice around this time of year."

"Oh?" Ted asked, urging her to continue, "That sounds like it would be... fun..." Admitting it only to herself, but the thought of the beach was rather strange for her. As far as she knew, she didn't _need_ to do anything test related or paper work related. Of course she would need to check her schedule to make sure, but Ted was curious to find out the charm of the beach. Ted set out a plate of buttered toast, bacon, scramble and more eggs onto the table before grabbing a bowel of assorted fruits from the fridge.

"You need 'bathing suits' for this activity right? I think I have one... somewhere..."

Kaldur sipped some fresh coffee as he watched Ted make her own cup. "You've never been to the beach?"

"No." Ted didn't think much of it. "I've been in a creek before... If its the same thing or not."

Robin had paused before taking a strip of bacon into his mouth. Ted chose it wise to ignore it, instead asking Superboy if he would like a cup of coffee. A nod from the clone, as his mouth was full of bacon, and Ted went to work on making it how he preferred. "Have any of you heard from Bart by any chance?"

"He's starting school today."

"I've heard," Ted answered Megan, "I hope it goes well."

"I'm sure he'll be fine." Robin said, hoping it would cheer Ted up, "He _did_ say that he was going to came back after the school let out."

"Where did you go to school Teddy?" Megan asked innocently as Ted placed a cup before Superboy and sitting in front of her own plate of food. "I've seen the tests that Batman gives you, I can't make heads or tails of them. Where ever you went must have been prestigious."

"I've actually never been to public school. Superboy can you pass the eggs please?" Silent as ever, Superboy held the bowel as Ted helped herself to a small helping. "Thank you Superboy."

Kaldur swallowed some bacon. "You've never been to public school?"

"I've been taught everything I know by myself or Doctor Hallo. She used to do work with the Red Cross overseas in Africa and India. I think she's somewhere in South Africa right now. I don't know for sure."

"You were home schooled? Wow I never thought that home schooled kids could be so smart..."

Ted lifted her eyes from her plate, not sure if she liked what Megan had just said. Kaldur was looking at Megan too.

"_Oh!_" Megan took a breath, seeing her error, "I'm sorry I didn't mean that-I meant its just that you didn't have the same type of educational system as the other kids. Oh no that didn't come right either!" Megan appeared to have a small melt down.

"Its alright Megan." Ted tried to calm the Mars adolescent, "I understand what you meant. Calm down, would you like some fruit?" Ted held out the said bowel. The pieces of fruit floated, and Ted found herself finding this normal instead of bizarre. The fruit was dropped onto her plate as she pouted. Ted was still smiling as she set down the bowel once more and starting on her toast, dropping some strawberries on the buttered surface, she bit into it and found the taste delightful.

"But yes, I've never been to school. Public setting or private. You call my situation being 'home-schooled' right? What about you Megan, is the educational system different on Mars?"

Megan seemed to instantly brighten at the sound of Mars. "It's not that different, we have language classes, mental sessions where we learn things like shape shifting and mental commands. Math, history, its not that much different than how it is on Earth. We go to school for half the day but we don't have things like summer vacation."

"I must be nice to go to a public school."

"Well, most schools on Mars could be considered private by Earth standards, but yea I guess its nice. I don't know how to compare it to Earth school yet."

Ted caught the word 'yet', meaning that she would _indeed_ being going to a public _Earth_ school. _So they let the martin girl into school but not you? That doesn't seem fair at all. Any word on your latest request?_ Voice should know, as she knew everything (and more) about the things Ted did. Sometimes she wondered if Voice would 'sleep' and miss out on things, or maybe she asked Ted questions just to make things interesting. _Not yet, but I'm not expecting them to allow it_.

_Sometimes it's a good thing not to get your hopes up._

She was right. It is a good thing. After all, she was shot down every time.

"What about school in Atlantis," Robin spoke up, taking some toast for himself, "Is it any different? Same?"

Ted took an apple slice, and handed the bowel over to the clone, who took it with his own version of a thank you being a nod of acknowledgment. She tuned into Kaldur's answer, feeling curious about his home.

"Our classes are smaller, maybe ten or fifteen others in a class." Kaldur started, taking time to remember his home world and Ted wondered if maybe he was feeling 'home-sick'. "So the teacher has more time to spend with the students should they have any trouble. As for subjects, we learn oceanography, what currents are safe and how the currents affect everything else. We also learn about marine toxins."

"Toxins? You mean as in 'poison'?" Robin asked Kaldur before taking down some eggs.

"Yes. Living in the sea means we share the area with Lion fish, puffers, and jellyfish so we've learned how to adapt to their poisons."

"So that might explain how your skin is so dense." Ted murmured under her breath, taking in what Kaldur had said as an academic note. Superboy looked at Ted from the corner of his eye and swallowed. "What about Kryptonian skin?" Superboy venture to ask. "Unfortunately I haven't been given any medical data on Kryotonians. I'm trying though but reaching Superman man is harder than I thought. However, I have my own theories onto why your skin is dense. I suspect that the gravity of the original planet Krypton was much higher. I'm sorry but that's all I have to go on until I can get a meeting with Superman."

"I assume Aquaman gave you Atlantian medical books?" Kaldur didn't know that his King had done such a thing. Normally, it was forbidden for land-dwellers to even _know_ about Atlantian-anything. His king wanted to take no chances when it came to the safety of his people and for that Kaldur was grateful for such a kind king.

"Yes he did. It was mostly basic things. How your anatomy differs from a person born on land rather than in the ocean. How you're able to make the transition from breathing underwater to breathing air is fascinating. I've never seen such things from doctor Hallos books."

"Speaking of Hallo," Megan interrupted, "I understand she was your therapist?"

"You're correct." Ted ate a slice of banana.

"I've been wanting to ask you why you lived with her. If she's your doctor why don't you live with your -?"

"Megan that's enough." Kaldur was stern. Already had taken this road.

"No," Ted calmed Kaldur with a wave of her fork, "It's alright for her to ask. To put things in how you say 'a nutshell', my father is a criminal being pursued by the Justice League. I live with doctor Hallo because she cared about me the most, for which I'm thankful for because I got to meet all of you through her." Superboy made an audible gulp of eggs.

"What about your real mother? Where is she?"

Ted froze. A mother. She thought of the Home Base, wondered how many faceless nurses there were, how many dinners she sat with a 'Father', but never questioned where her mother was because she didn't exist. _What was my mother like?_ She would ask him. _Which one?_ He always replied. "My mother..." Ted furrowed her eyes together, unsure of what to say and what would have been acceptable. From what she knew, one donor had a mother she clearly remembered. A blond woman in a revealing red dress, smiling above her in such a way that it gave her chills just to recall it. Hallo had never looked at her like that, or dressed in such a fashion. "...was never around." Ted stated, putting the last of her eggs into her mouth for an excuse not to open it. Ted was unsure of what a 'mother' truly was outside of the definition of birthing a child.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to bring anything up."

"No," Ted swallowed, "It's alright. I never knew her, so its nothing to be ashamed about. There's nothing wrong with curiosity. If you ever want to know something, don't be afraid to ask. Speaking of which, what of yours?" Ted decided to ask, "What is your family like?"

Ted didn't know what a real family was like. Something inside wanted to know.

"Mine?" Megan questioned, before thinking, "My house gets a little crowded with twelve sisters. We might a fight with each other from time to time but it's always nice to come home knowing that someone it waiting for you."

"Enough talk," Robin interrupted, "I believe we planned a beach trip today."

Ted and Superboy searched through her clothing drawers in search of their elusive bathing suits. Superboy had found his first, a pair of black trunks and then excused himself to change as Ted continued to find hers. Ted didn't know exactly what to search for, and she felt the shame of her ignorance for not asking someone _what_ a swimsuit was.

Her train of thought was derailed at the sound of a knock at the door. Pushing the drawer closed, she pressed the pad to let the door slide open. "Robin?"

He was wearing his shades of course, and some white-red trunks with a towel hanging on his shoulder. "Hey Teddy. Thought you might want this."

He then held out a shopping bag. "It should fit. There's some sunscreen in there too so remember to put that on. I'll meet up with you at the door." Then Robin turned on heel and left down the hallway. "...okay..." Helpless of what else to say she shut the door and peered inside the bag.

It was a mess of differently colored fabrics with strings and laces. She pulled out a random top. "... so this is a swimsuit?"

Curious to what else was in the bag, she turned it over on the bed and everything spilled out. It was then Superboy came out of their bathroom. "Did you find yours?"

"...Robin just dropped some off for me."

"I thought you said you had one?"

"I _thought_ I did, but I couldn't find it."

Superboy ventured closer to the bed, and looked down at all the different suits on the bed. "...Why are there so many?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure which one to choose."

Ted began to spread them on the bed. One was yellow, one was black, another was purple and there was even an orange one. Her eye caught on the red one that Superboy was holding up for her. A three-piece set that had a lacy wrap that would tie to her hips as a makeshift skirt. "... what about this one?"

"...I like it."

* * *

_HALLO HAD FINALLY RETURNED TO HER HOME after a stay in the refugee camps of African survivors of a territorial genocide_ _when a knock came at her door_. Being the only person within a mile from the town she doubted it was a local. The rapping sounded more urgent the second time.

"Coming!" she shouted to the door. Again they knocked, it seemed like they wanted to knock the door _down_ rather then get her attention. She unlocked the outside door before pulling it open and stepping a ways for room. "Oh, its you two. I'm sorry, if I had known the great duo _Batman _and _Superman_ was coming to my home I would have made something. You don't look well, come inside and I'll make some tea."

Batman needed no further instruction.

Stomping into the house he confronted the doctor as Superman shut the door behind him.

"Why didn't you inform the League that one of Ted's _donors_ was a high _profile murderer?_"

Hallo rolled her eyes, stepping into her kitchen, "Because you would get like _this_. Ted _isn't_ affected by the past behaviors of any donor. Ted is a separate sentient person with thoughts and feelings and who is currently being treated like property by the very Justice League devoted to the health and safety and freedom of all life on or off earth, I'm out of tea are you alright with coffee at this hour? It's early for me but what about you?"

"We _know_ you've been keeping Stein updated." Superman interrupted the blond woman and the said woman froze at the sink, "You told us you wanted Ted _away _from that man."

"And I _do_."

"Then _why_ did you stay in contact and never tell us?"

"And why should I tell you anything," Hallo bit back, "You Justice League are never considering _the other reasons _I have been speaking to Stein. Tell me, what do you think those pills are for? Never mind what I've originally told you about them." Hallo stepped forward and past Superman, not once fearing the Man of Steel and Gothams Dark Knight.

"The pills help Ted with memory suppression right?" Superman didn't know a lot about drugs, but even less about the mysterious pills Ted was on. "I know that much."

"Yes," Hallo agreed, "There is that. But what else?"

"I've never seen compounds like them." Batman said, "My tests show that they don't _do_ anything."

"Perhaps you haven't been using the _right_ subjects." Hallo sighed, "Come with me. Maybe you two should see _exactly_ what those pills do."

Hallo led the two heroes from the main floor down and then the grand oak stairs. Batman walked as Superman floated up. She unlocked a door at the very end of the hallway. Inside was nearly bare, only a simple desk and a laptop computer with a cord plugged into the nearby wall. "When The Enigma Design was first presented to me, I thought it was a crazy idea brought to the world by an equally mad man. Then he showed me what he called 'A', 'B', and 'C'." She brought open the files of three animals.

A rat.

A dog.

A cat.

"The first subject, A, was a rat made of two halves of two rats. It lived for three months before..." She clicked the mouse once, and Superman took in a sudden breath of horror. "_this_."

The video was grotesque. Beyond words and simply horrible. The rat was in his last moments of life. Muted, it twitched violently and its mouth was open in what would have been a cry of pain. From 'two halves', the rat slowly parted from down the middle of its spin. Not the front half from the bottom half, but from the left side from the right side. Hallo didn't seem affected by it, no doubt having been there in person. "The second subject was the dog, it was harder to puzzle together because Stein wished to use different types of dogs and observe how those parts would interact with each other and how the dog would behave." the next video was brought up and the said dog did indeed look strange and out of place. There was different colored spots of fur, it was struggling to walk as its legs were of different dogs and therefore different lengths. "The animal lived for eight months. And suffered the same fate as the rat."

The death of the dog looked quick, it had suddenly stopped, spat up blood, and then _fell apart._ Just like that. Superman could feel his nerves on end, though he saw Batman with his poised poker face, Superman could hear the rapid heartbeat and smell the scent of fear.

"It was the cat that lived the longest due to the compound Stein called C."

It was a tiny kitten. The video moved rapidly from 'month 1' up to 'month 32'. A tiny little kitten grew up to a strange but lovely feline. Each eye a different color. Tail made of rings of different types of cats and so was its fur. "It would have lived longer had the cat remained on the Compound C treatment. It was taken off at mark 32, and then died six days later."

Day one, the cat seemed fine.

Day two, the cat was slow.

Day three, the cat couldn't move its rear end.

Day four, the cat couldn't _move_.

Day five, blood seeped from under its fur were different fur patterns met.

Day six, _separation._

"Teddy doesn't know the reason purpose of her pills, the Compound C, and _I'm_ trying to keep it that way. I'm trying to get Stein to give me the data on the compound before Ted's remaining supply runs dry. I know you two didn't want her in Young Justice, but _this_ is why I do." She shut down her computer and led the two men out of the study. "I want her to make her own happy memories without being afraid of a memory lapse. To have friends without remembering friends she never really had. Did you know Ted was all alone in the Home Base?"

"...She was the only Enigma Design."

"Yes, I know that, but there wasn't one person who tried to reach out to her. At first, not even me." Into the kitchen, Hallo took out a cup and poured herself coffee. Black. "I need to sit down."

She sat at the counter, but not before offering the two heroes a seat and drink as a proper host would. In minutes, Batman, Superman, and Hallo were sitting at the dinner table with coffee before them. Hallo took hers black. Batman took his with only sugar, and Superman had loaded his cup with both creamer and sugar.

"I had known the plan from the beginning. I didn't think much of it at the time, but when I first saw Teddy in the artificial womb, I had doubts. I thought that her brain would have been too damaged from the amount of surgery and I had suspected her to be a vegetable. Then I started thinking about _if_ she wasn't to damaged, what would happen to her later in her life. I feel terrible for wanting to do it now, but back then, I wanted to pull the plug on Ted and end her life right then and there." Hallo took a moment of silence to allow the information to seep in. Superman and Batman were silent, having no questions of their own at the moment.

"I wondered about the donors too, I've met Helena King. The murderer, several times in fact. The day Ted woke up from her coma, she was scared and she was crying and everything was so scary to her I couldn't help but become attached to her. She already understood basic things, but there was a frenzy when she woke up and all the doctors wanted to study her at the same time. It took both me and Stein to fend them off. This was when Ted imprinted Stein as a father figure. I wasn't allowed to speak with her until she was almost six months old. I'm ashamed to say it now, but then, I hated everything about her."

"Why would you hate her?" Superman asked, "She hadn't done anything."

Hallo nodded, Batman sat like stone. "That's just it Superman. I hated her because she hadn't done anything. I hated her because she _survived_. I wanted her to die in her sleep because I knew that one day she would set herself free and one day that the truth of her creation would kill her inside." Hallo suddenly narrowed her eyes at the man of steel, "But _you_ should know all about _that_." Superman frowned behind his cup, but let it slide. "So after all this time, I've kept contact with Stein in hopes of getting a more permanent drug that Ted could take once every year or so. Something to give her more time. However, I don't believe he will give me anything on the compound."

"As for Ted, when her medicine runs dry, she will only have days, maybe a week but I _will_ pull her from the Young Justice program. I've kept the real reason behind the pills from Ted. I don't want her living knowing that she's going to die. I don't want her to have bad dreams when she dies. I would think a life with happy memories and friends would be better then just having memories of the Home Base. Wouldn't you agree?"

"...I do." Batman spoke for the first time. Tone low and hushed. "I accept the terms. What will you tell her when it's time."

Hallo studied him. Her blue eyes meeting the white canvas of his cowl that hid his own gaze.

"The only thing I can tell her. The truth." Hallo swallowed, "I will tell her and I will have her decide where she wants to be when it happens."

* * *

_THE BEACH SMELLED HEAVILY OF SALT and Ted learned of the private beach that the mountain had within walking distance of the back door_. The beach had sands stretching from the edges of the jagged rocks to the other end of the shore that Ted could not see. The sand was hot under her feet and she was glad she had a pair of sandals so her feet wouldn't burn. Her bikini fit her perfectly, red with white thin ribbons that she compared to shoe lace. They tied behind her neck, her back, and on each side her hips in bows. The white lace wrap made a little skirt that fluttered and tickled her upper thighs. Superboy had been the one to point out the red heart charm on the ribbon between her breasts.

She could feel the sun on her skin and watched as the others made their temporary camp on a small section of flat sand. Ted watched as the ocean made a gentle foam on the edges of the sand.

"So this is the beach?" For some reason, hearing about it seemed more exciting than actually being here. Superboy was placing the large umbrella into the sand, securing it. "Get under the shade Ted, you don't want to get sunburn."

Ted gave a short hum in reply but did as he requested. She was carrying a picnic basket while Robin had carried the umbrella, Kaldur had taken a small grill, Megan had towels and Superboy carried the cooler with meats and drinks. Ted sat under the shade as she reached into the basket, trying to find the sunblock. She pulled it out with a smile.

Kaldur had just put down the tiny grill when he saw Ted from the corner of his eye. Thinking back, this was likely the first time he had ever seen her wear something that revealed so much. She turned her back to him, her hand sifting through the basket in search of something. Her line-scar could be seen by everyone. A thin line with dots in perfect measurement on each side. It trailed from the base of her neck, down to her tail bone. Distantly he wondered what had happened for Ted to be on the receiving end of such an injury. Had she been on a mission? No, she had said that the Amazo transport was her first mission. Then he remembered that he had asked about it before, and this was the first time that he had seen it in person. He was only a few feet away from her, but he could see the contrast between the scar and her skin. _To put things in how you say 'a nutshell', my father is a criminal being pursued by the Justice League_.

A surgical scar.

It was to perfect to be the cut from a violent foe and too neat to be from an inexperienced doctor. _S-she-... used to live with her therapist?_ Megan had once asked Superboy, and Kaldur thought about just _how little_ he knew about the smaller female teammate. How little Ted knew of the outside world could seen when during their trip to the market. She didn't know was a aquarium was, thinking at first it was a book.

Like she was _never_ outside.

Then all the pieces fell together.

Kaldur felt a cold shutter. Ted _had never_ been outside before entering the care of Doctor Hallo. _S-she-... used to live with her therapist?_ She lived with Hallo because Hallo was the only one who could help her integrate into society as gently as possible. He starred at the girl under the umbrella. Superboy was standing close, watching her as well. Superboy had never been outside either, being taught mentally had made the change easier for him, but the link with Ted was still there. Both new to a whole world that had never seen.

The said girl finally found the sunblock and asked Superboy if he would be kind enough to apply it to her back. Superboy was looking down at the female with a normal poker face, but then nodded. His blue eyes lifted up and met Kaldur's and his eyes clearly said Back Off. Ted thanked the clone and turned and sat on her ankles for Superboy to coat her back.

The image of a guard dog wearing the _S_ emblem returned to Kaldur's mind, and for some reason he could not figure out why the two were so close to each other. Kaldur knew more about Superboy, but Superboy probably knew more about Ted than anyone else.

Maybe Robin could be of some help, to figure out the enigma that was Ted.

Megan had just finished spreading the beach blanket without her hands when Superboy was finished with Ted's back. Megan asked for the same treatment but was rebuffed by the clone. Ted rubbed down the rest of her skin with the lotion and offered to do it, but Megan said that maybe some sun would be good for her skin.

"Well, if you're sure Megan. Robin, did you need some sunscreen?"

Robin shook his head, "No that's fine. I could use some sun too. Just remember to re-apply it after an hour alright."

"I will."

Ted stood up, and Kaldur observed as she removed her tie-on skirt and stepped out of her sandals. He could see why the teams Medic could not be involved in a fight, Ted seemed too fragile and entirely to small to stand a chance against anything. He had never seen her once raise her hand in anger or lash out against something, and he wondered what she would look like if she _were_ ever to fight. Those bright green eyes narrowed on her opponent, she was intelligent so would be be cunning and overthrow her enemy with ease and grace that she normally carried?

Ted and Megan ventured to the edge of the waters, Ted stilled but Megan waded deeper into the foam. Ted had her head tilted down to the wet sand and Kaldur watched as he curled her toes away from the swaying waters. Curious, he came closer to the small medic. "Is there something wrong Ted?" he asked politely, wondering if Ted had suddenly developed a case of hydrophobia, hoped that it wasn't the case.

"... It's so cold." Ted said to him, "You used to live in these temperatures?"

Kaldur hummed in amusement. "Yes I did and from time to time, still do. You get used to it after staying in the water."

"I-I've never, uh, swam, before..." Ted looked out at the nearby waters, "How deep is it?"

"It does not get deep unless you swim out far." Kaldur held out his hand. "Come, you can hang onto me if it gets too deep for you."

Ted looked down at his hand, and hesitantly, she took it into her own hand. Her skin was smooth, and when he gripped it gently, he could feel her hand shiver and thought of how warm her hand was. He led out farther out into the ocean, the water weaved around his legs and it felt nice to enter home once again. Ted was giving small noises of discomfort, but moved forward with him. They caught up to Robin, who was simply floating on his boogie-board watching the others. "Hey Ted," he greeted her, "Hows your first beach trip so far?"

"Cold and wet." she didn't look up, keeping eyes on the water as if it were going to suddenly engulf her.

"There's nothing to be scared of Ted," Robin informed her, finally getting her to lift her head, "You're not going to drown." the color in her face turned white. "Kaldur wouldn't let such a thing happen to our teammate. So calm down and start feeling the _aster_."

She shivered. "I'll start feeling the 'aster' _after_ I figure out whats _wrapped around my foot!_"

Leaning onto Kaldur more, her hand shot into the water, and then pulled out a long, slimy strand of seaweed. She studied it, pulling it further out of the water to get a better look at it. "...What is it?"

"...seaweed." Kaldur simply said, Robin was floating away from them but Superboy was looking bluntly in their direction.

"Seaweed?" Ted repeated. Looking at the strange plant for the first time, and Kaldur was once again astounded by her level of ignorance of the outside world. She didn't seem all to excited at holding the seaweed as she held it away form her person between two fingers. "...it's covered in slime." Ted did not sound all to pleased about feeling the new plant in her hand. She let it drop and sink back into the sea.

"...Yes, it is covered in slime but other fish eat it."

"..._eating that_?"

Ted was led further out, and she shivered when the water rose from hip level, to stomach level. Ted took in a sudden breathe when she felt the sudden rise of sand. Walking forward, the water went from stomach, to her his, thighs, and finally back to her calves. She looked down at her feet, but the dark water was all she could see.

"What happened?" she asked Kaldur, keeping her head down to try and peer deeper into the waters depths. Kaldur raised a brow, "I thought the ocean gets deeper..." She kept her head down, trying to figure out something on her own.

"We're on a sandbar."

"Sandbar?" She repeated, and more evidence came to Kaldur's mind. Surely a normal human would know such things, but it was _clear_ that Ted did not.

"Sandbars... are like hills near the beach, in the ocean." Kaldur felt the need to make things easy for Ted, he kept in mind that Ted was no fool and nor was she dumb and should not be treated as such. "...hills?" it seemed that he had failed.

It was strange how brilliant minds could have such a hard time comprehending average things. Robin and Megan were enjoying the surf further down the beach as the current carried them on their boards. Superboy wasn't far away, choosing to float on his back and look at the sky. Kaldur didn't doubt he was keeping an ear on Ted and him. As Ted was still trying to figure out why there would be hills in the ocean, Kaldur gently tugged the female further from the shore in hopes to calm her mind.

Ted was stumped, hills in the ocean sounded almost silly. Then again, she knew basically nothing about the ocean. Only that there are sharks... Ted stopped, sharks. There were sharks in the ocean. Sharks were predators. She wanted no further off the sandbar-hill.

"Ted?" Kaldur called her name, "Is something wrong?"

"There are... sharks in the ocean. Right?"

"Yes," Kaldur nodded, "But none I can sense in the area. There is nothing to worry about."

The bitter smell was back, mixed with salt and by the way Superboy shot to his feet (creating a sudden wave that knocked Megan over), the clone could smell the fear too. "We do not have to go any further if you don't want too."

Kaldur wondered if he had pushed Ted's trust further than what was possible. If Ted had indeed never been outside during her early years, then maybe Kaldur had pushed her into an unknown world too far. Too much all at once. Her hand in his tightened for a fraction of a second. Had his skin not been to sensitive to pressure changes, he doubted he would have felt it at all. "Would you like to be on the rocks?"

"Rocks?"

"Over there." he pointed to the far side of the little beach. A pathway of rocks ventured further into the ocean, farther than the sandbar and Kaldur watched as the ocean current beat against them. "We could be out further, but we won't have to be in the water."

"...Alright."

Ted started back towards the beach, but Kaldur stayed where he was. Superboy and him were starring down once again and this time the clones whole body said _defend_ but it relaxed as Ted came closer to him. She left the sandbar, swimming awkwardly and once again Kaldur berated himself for not asking if she knew how to swim. Such a thing that was natural to him made him often inconsiderate of humans.

_Ted couldn't swim_. "Ted-!" he called out just before a, arch of water came and knocked Ted off her feet. He was by her side at an instant, his hands holding her up by her underarms as she took in a gasp of air.

Her hair was wet now, Kaldur observed, a darker brown color than its normal light, almost dirty-blond hair. It curled up and all of it was down swept to the left.

"Are you alright?" Superboy had just came within arms reach. Ted rubbed her eyes, "Y-yeah! Thanks, that one took me by surprise..."

Superboy was starring him down just as Ted got an eye open. "Oh, hey there Superboy." She didn't find it strange to be held up. "Kaldur and I were going to the rocks over there. Did you want to join us?"

"..." He looked at Kaldur, blinking once but Kaldur saw something in Superboy (directed at him) that wasn't pleasant. "Okay."

Kaldur sighed. Slowly lowering Ted back into the water but kept hold on her as another wave passed by them.

"You and Superboy walk. I will swim there. It has been a while since I've been under the water."

Ted nodded, and her lips quirked up into that of a smile. She turned and walked back to the sand of the beach and was fallowed by the ever-faithful guard-dog. Superboy kept his eye on Kaldur until the teenager was under the water, then fallowed the team medic. The sway of the current was a comfort of home.

The small female was so strange, Kaldur thought to himself under the beauty of a crashing wave. White foam filtered through the surface as he let himself drop onto the sands floor. Reading massive texts multiple times, those green eyes were sharp as razors but everything else seemed fragile. He once watched Ted in her office as she did a check up on him after their mission together, something she did with everyone. There were no personal items (as there shouldn't be but it was still unnerving) and her aura as a whole seemed professional when inside her lab.

She spoke with calm words and asked questions she deemed appropriate. In turn, she answered his own questions in the same manner.

He was also curious to know if she was hurt during their mission. She answered truthfully, having an encounter with the Professor Ivo and his animals. They were taken down easy she had said. Then Kaldur learned she had electrically charged gloves that could do some serious damage when paired with Ted's expert knowledge of the body's weak points.

When Kaldur saw her _outside_ of her office, those few moments that she was, she was tired and exhausted. Superboy explained the tests that she was required to do in order to stay on top of her medical training and also as part of the deal with the JLA to stay on the Young Justice covert team. She took it seriously because she didn't want to leave.

Another wave, another gentle rock of the ocean. From even under the water, his eyes could see Ted and Superboy walking over the rocks. Ted kept her eyes on the ground, stepping and sometimes a leap over a larger crack without her shoes as Superboy kept his eyes on her. Taking a breath under the salt water, he felt his gills open and part in a way he could not while on land.

He fallowed the waters current where it was disturbed by the kicked of feet.

Robins feet.

Kaldur slowly broke the surface in front of the more experienced hero of the group so not to startle him. Robin was floating, relaxing in his colorful inner-tube bobbing with the passed waves. "Whats up Kaldur?" he asked, Kaldur knows that Robin was trained by Batman himself, and he also knows how his body screams 'I Want Answers'. "Something on your mind? You don't look like you're feeling the aster."

"Some _has _been bothering me."

"What?"

"Don't play coy with me Robin. I'm serious."

"...?"

"I have been watching our medic's behavior."

"Aww." Robin leaned forward, "_Someones_ got a _cru~sh_." How appropriate that a bird would sing. It seemed like even _Robin_ was avoiding the topic. During their first meeting with Ted, Robin had been vague when he said _We have a brief history_

"Its nothing like _that_ I assure you." Kaldur paused, for the first time wondering if something he said could get him _removed_ from Young Justice. He chose to look at the sky, letting himself float in his back rather than look at Robin. "Was Ted..." how could he even say it? "...what happened?... before coming here? To Young Justice?"

Suddenly a new scent invaded Kaldurs' senses. "What do you mean Kaldur?" One he wasn't familiar with Robin.

"You _know_ what I mean Robin."

The scent was frightening coming from the young Robin. It was the same acid scent that came form the Dark Knight the night he came to take Ted away. Before Ted was sentenced to two weeks of house arrest. Though it was not as strong as Batman's scent, it was identifiable. "She _was_." Kaldur concluded. _I only know what doctor Hallo taught me. _Pieces of a puzzle, on that Kaldur almost _didn't_ want to put together, were slow fitting into their places. The scar she bares on her back. _I only know what doctor Hallo taught me._ Her strict diet, her lack of knowledge of the real world and everything in it.

Robins silence was all the proof he needed.

* * *

_WHEN THE SUN WAS HIGHEST, Kaldur informed everyone it was time to return._ They ate hot dogs, Megan showed Ted how to make a sand castle and Ted had taken pictures of the gang as they buried Superboy in a small mountain of sand. Ted was actually a bit downed when it was deemed time to return to the Sanctuary. Upon their return, Ted couldn't stop the flinch at the sight of Batman, Green Arrow, and a younger woman with them wearing the same colors as Green Arrow.

"Get in uniform. You are going on another mission as soon as Kid Flash returns."

Of course, Batman _could _have said more but his word is law.

Everyone was quick to depart the common room into their respective rooms. Superboy turned to the direction of their room but Ted turned away from everyone heading to her med-lab.

When Ted had returned, a few seconds before the return of the others. The nameless girl was still standing with Green Arrow, scanning the others as they were returning the look. Ted wondered who she was. When the teleporting gate began to hum, Ted and the other turned to watch.

"_Recognized. Kid. Flash._"

Through the light, Ted could see Bart's outline but it was also clear to her that he was carrying something. She squinted, was that a basket?

Bart jumped through the light, indeed carrying things for the beach and even wearing a pair of swim trunks. He seemed excited and Ted felt a sort of pity for the young man for the beach trip was over.

"The _Bart-Man_ is here!" he cheered, "Now lets get this party star-" he finally saw the older members of the Justice League and lost balance. Falling onto his front and dropping everything. Batman and Red Tornado kept their stone-faced forms even as a large beach ball bounced over their shoulders. "...-ted..."

The new girl put her fist-curled hands on her hips. "The 'Bart-Man' huh? Love the new uniform. What _exactly_ are your powers?" From the tone of her voice, she didn't seem all impressed with Bart's entrance and to be honest neither did Ted.

Unable to hold herself back, Ted helped Bart to his feet and gave him a look over to be sure he wasn't still hurt from their last mission. The bruising was gone and Ted hoped that he was diligent with his stretching. He patted off the invisible dust, and gave Ted a nod of acknowledgment before coming forward. "Uh, who's this?"

Ted came to stand at Superboy's side.

"Artemis." she proudly introduced herself, "Your new teammate."

"Kid Flash. Never heard of you."

It seemed it _wasn't_ the best of introductions. Ted was unsure what to do and once remembered Voice had said sometimes it was best to keep in silence. Ted held true to the advice.

Green Arrow came forward and put a hand on her shoulder. "-ah, she's my new protege."

Bart didn't seem pleased. "W-what happened to your old one?What about Speedy?" Ted knew Bart was speaking of Speedy, or rather as it was reported on the news channels, Red Arrow was now going solo without his mentor Green Arrow.

"_Recognized. Red. Arrow._"

"He goes by Red Arrow now."

_Well speak of the devil,_ Voice chimed and Ted wondered what that phrase meant. Red Arrow came through the gate and instantly the medic in Ted was telling her that the gash on his arm needed attention and antiseptic. He walked forward, ignoring everyone even as Green Arrow took yet another step forward.

"Roy... You look-"

"Replaceable." He spoke it like a curse.

"It's not like that." Green Arrow defended, "You told me you were going solo."

This seemed to only aggravate him more. "So why _waste_ time finding a sub? Can she even _use_ that bow?"

Artemis stood before him in a challenging pose, "Yes. _She_ can."

"Who _are_ you?" Bart asked, interrupting them before things could get ugly.

"I'm-She's _my niece._"They both said.

"_Another_ niece?" Robin asked.

"But she _is not_ your replacement." Kaldur spoke up. "We have always wanted you on the team and we have _no_ quota on archers."

"And if we did, _you know_ who'd we pick."

Artemis only huffed in arrogance. "Whatever _Baywatch_, I'm here to stay."

Ted couldn't recall anything with _Baywatch_ and wondered what it was. _Nothing for you to worry about_. Voice informed.

"You came to _us_ for a reason?"

"Yes." Red Arrow informed, "A reason named Sterling."

For reasons unknown, Ted felt her spine tremble.

* * *

Hello readers, this is Soft Requiem with an authors note. Now, I will NOT be doing this very often as it takes time to do so but the reviews I've been receiving are wonderful and I will personally thank them and even give a response. Yay.

The Amazing Carp Man, Reviewed Chapter 1: It's always nice to meet another fan of the Leviathan series. Just to be clear, the author of said series is Scott Westerfeld. It is a Trilogy, Leviathan, Behemoth, and soon to be released, Goliath (or so I've been told.)

Oiten, Reviewed Chapter 2 & 4: I find that the personality of Ted and Superboy compliment each other, and because of their limited understanding of the outside world they are unconsciously drawing comfort from the other. The reason she's so sensitive is because of her extremely sheltered upbringing, the knowledge of her origins, and the combined nature of her surrounds that she knows little of.

YAY (anonymous), Reviewed Chapter 4: This story will be finished. I'm ashamed to say that I've never completed a serious fic before but this will be finished.

Ms. Unlucky, Reviewed Chapter 1 & 4: I find the works by Mary Shelley, Neil Shusterman and psychological thrillers to be my main muse of inspiration. As for your second review, Ted doesn't understand the nature that is the evil ways of man to the fullest extent and hangs on to the thought of Robert Stein being her father and wanting the fathers love she never actually had.

This is great (anonymous), Reviewed Chapter 5: I'm trying to put everything I know into this fan-fiction so I'm pleased that it didn't disappoint. As for the relationship between Ted and Superboy, I would like to give a little push to all my readers. I want you and all my other readers to pay extra attention on _who_ Ted pays more thought to.

Tiredandshot, Reviewed Chapter 5: I'm glad you like my fan-fiction. As for the relationships of Ted and the others, time changes people and people change other people. Thats all the spoilers I'm willing to give up for the future.

Kiwisilence, Reviewed Chapter 1-3: As for your first question, it has already been explained in this chapter. The 12th is actually a willing participant within the TED. As for the story it self, I thought of how fun it would be to explore the deeper parts of humanity for a person who was not born of the traditional means. She and Frankenstein's monster have much in common, they were both created without a true purpose and left abandoned in a cruel world and both seek revenge for the wrong doing. Even though Ted had yet to realize what real anger is, its deep inside buried under the ignorance and naivety, she isn't old enough, some things she cannot learn with books. Forgetting to eat is something that most ADD encounter, I myself have that problem but is also a metaphor of Ted unconsciously understanding the meaning of emptiness. Between Ted and Hallo is a delicate understanding of a family structure that Ted see's, however Ted does not see Hallo as a mother but Hallo see's Ted as her own daughter (not having able to ever/or will ever have children) and due to a mothers instinct Hallo tries in vain to protect her from the JLA. In regards to my quote "Ted was owned by the Justice League" I wanted a blunt statement of how Ted see's herself in relationship with the JLA. I will not comment on the views of Batman and Robin.

Ted will have to fight eventually, she might be a medic but even medics have to defend themselves when required.

I must apologize for the lateness and the shortness of this chapter. I'm reviewing several factors, and I am also working on a _better_ Chapter One for Translated Between so that the readers may better understand. I've re-read the first chapter and I feel that I may have forced things rather than a gentle flow that I have wanted for the first chapter. Art work will also be uploaded via DeviantArt when completed but that will take some time so please I must ask that all my fallowers bare with me.

I'm also working on another side project: **When the Sky Fell Down** & I'm _thinking_ about making a oneshot of _**The Tragedy of Helena King**_. but please tell me what you think, I honestly want to know what I'm doing. Please review my work and tell me how I can get better!


	7. Chapter 7

_Sometimes I allowed my thoughts, unchecked by reason, to ramble in the fields of Paradise, and dared to fancy amiable and lovely creatures sympathizing with my feelings and cheering my gloom; their angelic countenances breathed smiles of consolation  
-Mary Shelley, Frankenstein_

* * *

_DOCTOR SERLING ROQUETTE, as explained by Robin and Red Arrow, is the nanorobotic genius and claytronic expert of Star Cities Royal University. _Everyone else was currently going over tactics and briefings over just _what_ 'The Fog' was, Ted was listening in through the com-link in her left ear as she used her right ear to listen to the same thing from Red Arrow or 'Roy' as Green Arrow had named him. In the safety of her med-lab, Ted had been ordered by Batman to take care of the wounds from Red Arrows most recent mission.

"...Ted Hallo, right?"

"Yes I am. I believe _you_ go by Red Arrow now?"

The cut on his shoulder was deeper than Ted had anticipated, and there was some metal and rocks imbedded inside but nothing to big to need surgery. Ted had already numbed his arm as she worked a pair of tongs in the wound. The sight of blood and the smell of iron did not bother her.

"Is it true?"

"Is what true?"

She had learned that Bart would talk a lot whenever she worked on him, not intentionally meaning to annoy her but something he did out of a nervous habit as it was explained by Voice. Ted curled her lips and relaxed her shoulders, trying to give the atmosphere a calmer and more welcoming air to ease Red Arrow. Even under her white gloves, she could feel how tense he was, maybe the adrenaline hasn't been diluted yet in his system, or maybe he was still worked up from the newcomer Artemis.

"Green Arrow had told me _you_ give information to the Justice League."

"I do." Ted replied gently, she stood on her feet while Red Arrow was sitting on one of the beds, she wished he would take off the domino mask so she would read his body language better, "I give them the information of their health and general well-beings. I have no part in mission reports as Kal-uh, Aqualad takes care of that. Batman comes to pick them up himself sometimes, Red Tornado delivers them most of the time. Why?"

He turned to her direction, the tongs in his shoulders finally gotten grip onto the rock-piece and Ted dropped said rock into the tin bowel to her right.

For a moment, everything about him seemed to finally relax.

"...the League... _owns you_... don't they?"

Tilting up her head, she felt all thought simply stop. "..." Ted opened her mouth to oppose his broken statement, but it seemed that nothing could come out. "You're here _only_ because _they_ said you could be. I know, you're the only one here with a _contract_ of all things."

Ted sighed, _how much more does he know?_ Voice asked in her head, and Ted could only hope to ignore her for the time being. Taking a cotton pad to soak up blood and water.

"My contract allows me to stay here, I don't deny that." she reached into a kit with hooked sterile needles and medical thread. "In order to remain as the active Young Justice Chief Medical Officer, I am required to fill out updates on the conditions of each member and report them to the Justice League as they see fit. I give them information of any injury no matter how small in case of something happens in the future, there are records of past injury to look back on."

"The League owns you."

"No they don't." Ted snapped, "They allow me to stay here."

"They own you. The only reason you're _here_ is because _they allow you to_?"

"And what of it?" she asked him. "They allow the others in Young Justice, and _you're_ offered a place here as well if you so chose to be. How is it they own me and not the others?"

She knows the League owns her. They had saved her from the Home Base, saved her from living away and wasting what talent she had in a lonely hole in the ground with a mad man. Hearing it from another person only cemented it.

"They don't let you _live_."

It was no doubt a bold statement, and now he was looking directly at her as she threaded the needle through his skin.

"That's how its different from the others. The others _can leave._ From your..._contract_," he spoke it like it was a dirty thing, _"You_ have to _stay_ here. From what I can gather, the League wants to know _where_ you are, _at all times_. Face it, you're an _item_ to them. You think this is a life? It looks more like a cage from my point of view."

Life. Any normal person could have agreed with him, but Ted was inclined to believe that what she had with Young Justice was also a life. What did he mean? Another loop, the cut on his shoulder was maybe three inches long, and thankfully not very deep. What went into a life? She breathed, ate, slept, and did everything else that the others did and she kept within the bounds of her contract to remain with them. She did what she wanted to do, how was she not living her own life? It did not matter to her on what she was doing, as long as she remained whole and out of the _real _cage, away from Home Base, _this _is her life. How was she not living it? Her brow came together in confusion to his bold statement.

Red Arrow must have seen her expression, how could he not?

"... so it is true." he sighed and he _leaned in_.

She turned her attention back to his arm, another stitch and it was done. Tying it off and cutting off the excess, she quickly dabbed it with cotton balls to soak anything left. Her cheeks felt like they were burning, but Ted could not pinpoint why. She felt embarrassed, she felt jittery and antsy and her stomach seemed to _flutter_ for a lack of a better description. Swallowing a lump she didn't know she had, she turned away to grasp a lone roll of wrapping. What was it? Shame? Remorse? Whatever it was, she did not understand it.

She didn't like it.

Turning back, she felt every muscle lock.

She could feel his breath across her lips and cheeks. He was not smiling, and the domino masked made it impossible for Ted to know _where_ he was looking. His forehead bumped hers gently, and his uninjured arm lifted up and a large hand was on the back of her neck. It wasn't threatening, and his shoulders were relaxed and his face was giving signs that said '_shame_' but what was there for him to be ashamed about? Noses bumped, and Ted's grip on the wrap loosened in her shaking hand and it fell to the floor with a soft thud.

Muscles in his face came together in a fashion she was not familiar with, far to relaxed to be shame, and too soft to be disappointment.

"Do you know what _real freedom_ is?"

Being out of the Home Base, she wanted to answer, but her throat seemed to want to be drawn inward rather than out. Everything inside felt energized, too much to be deemed comfortable but with so much she could not find the strength to move. What did he mean? She couldn't look away from the white of the mask, she could _just_ see his eyes, and everything she saw frightened her.

Ted did not know what was going on in his head, and everything inside her own was buzzing and fuzzy and fluttering that she could not put together a proper response.

He leaned back, and Ted let loose a shaky breath and turned away. "-Y-you're fine." she said looking everywhere but _him_. Another wrap was in order, she finally thought, and fished out another roll from the cabinet, "You can remove the stitches in three to four weeks." she needed to regain her head. "Keep it wrapped up if you're going to continue with missions. Go see someone if they don't hold up or if it starts bleeding to much." She didn't want to say _come see me_ if his stitches did indeed break.

She rolled his arm faster then she could remember, fastening it with hooked clips, she pulled her hands away as if it burned.

His expression did not change.

At the door, she had her back to him. "I don't have to report anything to the League since you're not a member of Young Justice. Don't speak of anything that happened just now. To anyone." _He might know to much as it is!_ Voice claimed, and that was the very reason Ted did not want him talking to anyone about this. Too intimate. Too much. _Dangerous_. Voice hissed.

A shadow was behind her and Ted could hear the soles of his shoes against her once clean floor. His arms wrapped around her shoulders _-Dangerous!- _and everything seized violently inside.

"_What are you doing?_" She whipped around and forced him away with a well placed knuckle to a lower rib. Her muscles suddenly felt far to taunt to use properly, she could smell a strange odor she doesn't recognize and the sensation of _something_ she _doesn't like_. She stepped away, in the threshold of her office. Red Arrow was a meter from her person. The unfamiliar look was still directed at her, but now the lines were deeper, and Ted felt something she hadn't before. Anger? Frustration? Some poisonous mix of the two and it was threading through her limbs and everything inside was telling her _fight back_ to the unknown source.

"I trust you can let yourself out." she turned away from him, wanting to _get out_. "I have a mission to carry out and I'm sure you have _somewhere_ to be."

Ted knew it was rude of her. Ted knew that she _blew it_ and there was absolutely no feeling of the aster and everything all at once wanted to _move_. Something. Anything. _Anything_. Stepping down the hallway, she tried to relax when she was greeted with Kaldur and Bart, whom was now in uniform and the half-lidded eyes of the new member of the team.

His face never changed from that dreaded expression.

* * *

_HAPPY HARBOR HIGH SCHOOL had not yet been opened to the local youth and Ted minded that they should not damage it like the high school in Gotham._ Ted was leaning against the table where the blond haired woman was typing away furiously at the virus program meant for The Fog. Her arms were crossed over her chest as she absently watched the computer screen blip lights and sounds that their own computer would. In the same room was Robin, Artemis, Kid Flash, and Kaldur. Megan and Superboy were taking first watch as patrol. Kid Flash was eating something, and Ted couldn't be bothered with _what_, she was bothered with something else.

_We need to watch out for Red Arrow_. Voice spoke up gently, _He is dangerous. Stay away from him._

_He's only trying to help me_. Ted defended him, try as she might to _dislike_ him, she could not.

_Don't bother yourself with what he said._ Voice soothed, a coolness came over her head like a wave,_ Ignore it. Cast it. It is nothing._

_It is not 'nothing'. It bothers me to an extent I didn't know possible! Please Voice! Go back to sleep or 'whatever' it is you do in my head!_

Voice went silent once again. Ted whispered hope to herself, not wanting for Voice to start hating her if she doesn't already.

What bothered her was the sensation that Red Arrow had caused.

The smell of something dirty in the air and _something_ felt like _crawling_ and _pulling_ every where in her being. The smell of wet dirt, the smell of something rotten and another tangy smell she could not place. A liking to fear, but something _worse_ and she was afraid to venture any further into that unknown territory within. Why was it that only Red Arrow caused it? By a simple hug? Ted had seen him coming, and she had been held by the other members of the team before, so what was different with him?

Ted was brought out of her thoughts when Kaldur took a hand to his com-link. "Miss Martian. Link everyone up. I do not want the Shadows intercepting our com."

In her head, she was _very aware_ of a phantom pressure. Artemis, having never felt her mental link up before, must have felt a great deal more since she had put a hand to her head and started looking at herself as if she had been suddenly injured.

'_Uh! This is weird...'_ Artemis' blinked hard.

'_And distracting._' the doctor Serling spoke, or rather thought, for the first time in Ted's presence, and she had not sounded pleased, '_As if coding a distributed algorithm virus on a kiddie computer with less ram than a wrist watch is hard enough. Now I have to hear teenagers think in my skull!'_

Ted could feel a migraine coming on.

_'Lady do you always get this upset when people try to help you?'_ Bart ate another bite of whatever it was he was eating. Kaldur watched absently

'_Pot. Kettle._' Artemis gestured Kid Flash, than Serling, it did not help the throbbing in her head, '_Have you met?_'

Ted tried in vain to rub her temple, she could feel her blood pressure rising and something else she couldn't place.

'_Hey!_' Bart voice was harsh and a flash of pain bolted in her head, _'I do not need attitude from the newbie that drew Red Arrow off the team!'_

_'That is so not on me!' _

Ted had enough of the yelling.

"_Enough!_" she verbally barked, her eyes felt heavy as she narrowed her gaze on Kid Flash and Artemis. She missed the jump on Kaldur and Robins part. She did however see the sudden movement she associated with surprise. "I am in _no mood_ for this." she hissed, the tension in her chest felt like it was unwinding and it felt _good_.

_'Continue to work on the virus Doctor._' she addressed her in the same fashion she would address Hallo, '_Artemis and I will go patrol with Miss Martian and Superboy.'_

'_She started it!_'

"I don't care who started it!" she snapped at him, "I'll _finish_ it!" Everything felt far too tense.

'_Fine._' Artemis said.

Ted ignored the strange look from Kaldur, opting to hold the door open for Artemis. '_...Good idea._' Kaldur said to them all.

'_… I like that Medic._' Serling continued to work on the virus as they walked through the entrance.

Going up the stair-well had not been pleasant either, drawing out both her pistols, Ted had needed to _forcibly request_ Artemis and Kid Flash to _not_ respond to each other unless the situation deemed it necessary.

On the rooftops, Superboy had heard everything. The strange tone that Ted normally did not talk in but he had never seen or heard Ted angry and therefore was concerned on the cause of it. Stepping around the pavement near the fencing that marked the boarder of the school property, his nose had caught wind of the scent of apples and old paper that was their Medic. Another quick glance around, he could see nothing or hear nothing that was decided dangerous. Taking a bounding leap, he made bee-line for the origin of the scent.

'_You two shouldn't get on her bad side._' Robin lightly suggested, _'If she thinks you're a danger to the health and safety to the team, she has the authority to remove you from missions.'_

'_Seriously?_' Artemis chortled like Robin had said a joke, but this seemed to have been something new to the team. '_You're serious?_' Bart questioned. Robins' silence had cemented it to fact. _'When did that happen? I don't remember a meeting about that?'_

'_Since she's been CMO._'

Taking another leap over an air duct, then over a series of windows, he landed before the Medic and the archer Artemis. Superboy peered over the area, senses alert and form ready to jump if need be. However, he could not smell anything over the foreign scents that had nearly taken over the pleasant smell of apples.

Artemis on the other hand, gave the Medic a once-over. Slim build, built as if she had been running track. Hands encased in a thick layer of cloth and metal. Lips set in a way that clearly said 'Annoyed'. When she met those eyes, greener than any leaf and sharper than any of her arrows, Artemis deemed that the team Medic was also sizing her up as well. Her stance, her shoulders were straight and each hand held a pistol with finger-ready triggers, held firm as the two clashes with their eyes.

Artemis was not one to give up.

However, when Artemis gave a little smirk, one that would normally unnerve the other, Medic did not yield. A cold wave came over her head.

Artemis did not move from her spot, and the eyes of the Medic seemed damned near frightening now. Locked on her, Artemis wondered if the Medic was looking more at her neck rather than her eyes. There was an almost silent '_click_' in the air when Medic's wrists flicked. Artemis knew that was the sound of a safety-lock being undone. The Medic, narrowed her gaze by a fraction, and a cold shiver ran down the archers back. It was how the light hit the green eyes of the Medic and how her shoulders remained taunt and her whole body and eyes said 'Natural Born Killer' and Artemis wondered if challenging Medic would be wise.

The Medic was _clearly_ in no mood.

Artemis was the first to look away and Megan let out a relieved breath as Medic turned her back to them and started walking away. Superboy had fallowed a moment later.

'_Do you have to challenge everyone?_'

Ted ignored them for the time being, instead she concentrated on trying to slow her pulse, worried that maybe her med's didn't work if her blood pressure rose. Keeping herself alert was hard now, everything felt super-sensitized and the hyper-awareness she suddenly had was overall uncomfortable. '_Where I come from, that's how you survive._'  
Megan sighed and shook her head lightly, but the new information about the nature of their Medic was somewhat distressing. Normally, when Megan was with Ted or when Ted was in the area, the green eyed girl was looking over yet another stack of papers or a book or something on a touch-pad. Very rarely did anyone see Ted _not_ working. Watching Ted have a stare down with Artemis was frightening. Those green eyes hardened in such a manner she didn't associate with the Medic. _The eyes of a killer_. The dilation of the pupils, and Megan could hear how Ted's heart rate would rise just a bit, and it was the stance that she took that distressed Megan. The manner had spoke 'I have done this before. I will do this again' and Megan did not want to be that sort of fight.

Not to mention the strange temper Ted was emitting now. She had never seen her angry.

Megan could feel something inside, from the mental connection, that something inside Ted was eating her alive. From the moment she made the connection, Megan felt something _else_ inside her, a little tickle that she had never before experienced when making a mental bridge even with so many people. Ted hadn't been to the mission briefing, as she was ordered by Batman to fix up Red Arrow. So logically, by Megans deduction, whatever happened with Red Arrow was eating Ted. However, something told Megan that _wasn't_ the tickle she was feeling.  
Perhaps she needed more training with her uncle.

Megan thought more to herself. She knew what a single mind felt like, simply put as a caress of a feather gliding along another feather. A gentle wave and minds where linked and she would feel something like feathers on her own mind. But connected to Ted, was far different from the others. Difficult to place into words, Megan could only say that it was a 'tighter' feeling. She felt as if something inside Ted was refusing the mental bridge, but Ted had already accepted it and would speak through it. Perhaps the tight feeling was that of Ted refusing it to think in private.  
Perhaps it was something else.  
But for now, Megan would not question it too much.

* * *

Ted and Superboy took a walk around the building before Ted made her departure at the entrance. Stepping away from the Doctor had not been her intention before the mission began but to be sure her two teammates didn't push each others buttons, and her own, she felt tired and frustrated by just having the walk them out.  
As strange for someone like herself to use the term, she felt like she had to treat them like children. Walking silently through the hall, she felt something inside, something familiar give her a little tickle. Like static, a vision before her had no sound, but the picture was fuzzy and Ted hoped to herself that it would go away soon.

The scene was not one she was familiar with, but there was a sensation of relief and a cold satisfaction filled her being and she gripped her pistols tighter and walking through the red coated man. The brick wall was not real. Ted reminded herself, now was not the time to be lost within a memory.

Now was a time for action.

Everything around her wrapped and slowly reality came back. Instantly, her mindset switched from angry and irritated, to confused and aware.

Why had she been angry before? Ted asked herself, wished Voice could speak to her but not with Megans mind-bridging still in effect. She knows its simply in Bart's nature to be quick witted if not somewhat stupid but always had good intentions.

* * *

_**Hey everyone! Soft Requiem is back from the dead! Just letting a part of what was going to be chapter 7 but I said 'these poor guys' and here it is! I am currently working on the the action scenes (as I admit my horrid skills in that field) but no worries more is coming! Now since the Young Justice Season 1 is complete hopefully I can update at least once a month. Longer than is. WAY LONGER. Like... twenty pages at least.**_


	8. Chapter 8

Hello everyone!

I'm so very sorry for the long hiatus but a lot of things have happened in the real world.

But none the less I've decided to rewrite Design & Theory and I've posted it on ArchiveOfYourOwn. Because of 's new policies I've decided to not take chances of my work being deleted and I honestly think there is a lot of potential on AO3 and have since then moved to the site.

but I bring good news to all my fallowers and newbies who have just joined us!

Design & Theory is still alive! Rewritten and I've even posted some artwork on dA!

I will no longer be posting on and nothing will be updated on .

So thanks to everyone who read and reviewed!

As to my horrible updating habits, I've finally figured out a schedule in which I wil be updating on AO3, once or twice a month is my goal since I prefer to update with very long chapters.

Thank you everyone! Soft Requiem

Links to AO3 "Translated Between: Design & Theory"

Archiveofyourown works/1194279


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